CLEARWATER - Attorneys for the family of a severely brain-damaged woman defended Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature on Thursday in the legal battle over a hastily passed state law that empowered Bush to keep her alive.
Attorneys with the American Center for Law & Justice, founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Bob and Mary Schindler, who are fighting to keep daughter Terri Schiavo alive.
Michael Schiavo - who has been battling in court for years to carry out what he says is his wife's wish not to be kept alive artificially - is challenging the constitutionality of the law that allowed Bush to order her feeding tube reinserted six days after he had it removed.
The Schindlers say their daughter expressed no such end-of-life wishes and is not in a permanent vegetative state, as a probate judge has declared. They say she is responsive and could improve with therapy.
The brief filed Wednesday contends that the Florida Legislature and Bush acted properly and within the bounds of the state Constitution.
