Pro-Life Law Firm Files Supreme Court Brief in Terri Schiavo’s Law Case 
Email this article
Printer friendly page
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 31, 2004
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — While Terri Schiavo’s parents are battling to have courts acknowledge that killing her would violate her religious liberties, Governor Jeb Bush is fighting to uphold a law passed by the state legislature allowing him to prevent her starvation death.
On Wednesday, a pro-life law firm submitted a brief to the Supreme Court defending Terri’s Law and saying Bob and Mary Schindler want the court to hear Governor Bush’s appeal.
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which represents the parents of Terri Schiavo in a legal battle to keep their daughter alive, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a Florida Supreme Court decision overturning the law.
The Florida high court previously ruled that Terri’s Law violates the separation of powers clause in the state constitution.
"This is a case that certainly deserves consideration by the Supreme Court and we are supporting the Governor’s office in its effort to have the high court take this critically important case," said Jay Sekulow, the ACLJ’s chief counsel.
"At the center of this life and death struggle is Terri Schiavo – a woman who has received a death sentence from the Florida courts," Sekulow explained. "The Governor and legislature acted properly and constitutionally in passing ‘Terri’s Law.’"
The ACLJ brief calls the Florida court’s decision an "astonishing and unprecedented ruling."
It says the Florida Supreme Court acted unconstitutionally by preventing a hearing on the case and allowing attorneys for Governor Bush to establish that Terri would have wanted lifesaving medical care and rehabilitative treatment instead of being painfully starved to death.
The brief also asserts that Terri Schiavo, a disabled woman whose husband wants her life to end, is not in a persistent vegetative state, as alleged by her husband, that her condition is not terminal and untreatable, and that she is aware of her surroundings and does not want to die.
Related web sites:
ACLJ brief –
https://www.aclj.org/media/pdf/AmicusBriefinSupportofPetitioner2.pdf
American Center for Law and Justice – https://www.aclj.org
Terri Schiavo’s parents – https://www.terrisfight.org
