DRMIZER
12-13-2003, 05:39 PM
An appeals court today refused Gov. Jeb Bush's request to disqualify a St. Petersburg judge from hearing the constitutional challenge to ``Terri's Law.''
In a ruling last month, Circuit Judge W. Douglas Baird said that the newly passed law that allows Bush to keep Terri Schiavo alive with a feeding tube is depriving the brain-damaged woman of her ``constitutional right to privacy.''
Bush said the judge's comments made him an ''advocate'' and and the governor's attorney asked Baird to remove himself from the case. When Baird didn't, Bush appealed.
In a five-page decision, a three-judge panel of the Second District Court of Appeal said Baird's statements are not cause to remove him. Some of Baird's comments, the panel said, correctly reflect the law, while others were recitations of holdings by the appeal court itself, which has made several rulings in the Schiavo case over several years.
One of those appeal rulings affirmed a lower court's decision to allow the feeding tube to be removed.
''A determination that legislation impinges on a person's right to privacy is not equivalent to a conclusion that the legislation suffers from a constitutional infirmity,'' the three-judge panel wrote. Baird's ''comments constitute his legal views that reflect appellate decisions of the probate court contest'' between Terri Schiavo's husband and guardian, Michael, and Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, the appeal court said.
Schiavo, 40, suffered a heart failure in 1990 that put her in what doctors say is a persistent vegetative staet. Five years ago, her husband, Michael, began a legal battle to have her feeding tube removed, saying he was responding to her wishes not to be kept alive artificially. He has consistently been upheld in court and is now challenging the new law that allowed the governor to order the feeding tube reinserted.
Terri Schiavo's parents say she could be rehabilitated with therapy and want her kept alive and in their care.
In a ruling last month, Circuit Judge W. Douglas Baird said that the newly passed law that allows Bush to keep Terri Schiavo alive with a feeding tube is depriving the brain-damaged woman of her ``constitutional right to privacy.''
Bush said the judge's comments made him an ''advocate'' and and the governor's attorney asked Baird to remove himself from the case. When Baird didn't, Bush appealed.
In a five-page decision, a three-judge panel of the Second District Court of Appeal said Baird's statements are not cause to remove him. Some of Baird's comments, the panel said, correctly reflect the law, while others were recitations of holdings by the appeal court itself, which has made several rulings in the Schiavo case over several years.
One of those appeal rulings affirmed a lower court's decision to allow the feeding tube to be removed.
''A determination that legislation impinges on a person's right to privacy is not equivalent to a conclusion that the legislation suffers from a constitutional infirmity,'' the three-judge panel wrote. Baird's ''comments constitute his legal views that reflect appellate decisions of the probate court contest'' between Terri Schiavo's husband and guardian, Michael, and Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, the appeal court said.
Schiavo, 40, suffered a heart failure in 1990 that put her in what doctors say is a persistent vegetative staet. Five years ago, her husband, Michael, began a legal battle to have her feeding tube removed, saying he was responding to her wishes not to be kept alive artificially. He has consistently been upheld in court and is now challenging the new law that allowed the governor to order the feeding tube reinserted.
Terri Schiavo's parents say she could be rehabilitated with therapy and want her kept alive and in their care.