As the judge hints at striking down the law, players on both sides air their messages to local and national audiences.
By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE
Published November 15, 2003
CLEARWATER - A judge Friday harshly criticized Terri's Law as a violation of Terri Schiavo's constitutional right to make her own medical decisions.
"Mrs. Schiavo, along with every other citizen of this state, has the right to be left alone in his or her private life by this state's government," said Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Douglas Baird.
The law "unquestionably interfered with and intruded upon (Mrs. Schiavo's) constitutional right of privacy," he said.
His remarks came during a hearing on a lawsuit, filed by Mrs. Schiavo's husband, challenging Terri's Law. Baird cautioned that he has not decided whether he ultimately will declare the law unconstitutional.
But in his ruling Friday, he ordered lawyers for Gov. Jeb Bush to quickly submit legal arguments defending the law, suggesting he is poised to strike it down unless Bush lawyers can change his mind.
After the hearing, the legal and public relations battle over the right-to-die case continued:
Mrs. Schiavo's mother, Mary Schindler, appeared via satellite on the Oprah Winfrey Show on Friday with Mrs. Schiavo's brother and sister to say Mrs. Schiavo isn't brain-dead.
Attorney George Felos, representing Mrs. Schiavo's husband, Michael Schiavo, debated the case at the Tiger Bay Club of Tampa with the head of a disability rights group.
Bush met with a guardian ad litem, whose appointment in the case was mandated by Terri's Law. But Bush refused to release details of the meeting.
Terri's Law, adopted by state lawmakers on Oct. 21, allowed Bush to force doctors to reinsert Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube after she went six days without food and water. The law has forced a constitutional showdown between Bush and the courts.
Any ruling by Baird is certain to be appealed, eventually to the Florida Supreme Court.
Baird, a registered Republican, said six years of litigation and appeal have determined that Mrs. Schiavo did not want to be kept alive by artificial means.
"Each hour, each day, each week that goes by since the governor required the reinsertion of her artificial (life) support, Mrs. Schiavo is being prevented from exercising her constitutionally guaranteed and judicially confirmed desire to be free of a continued existence by life-prolonging procedures," Baird said.
Mrs. Schiavo "should not be forced to receive unwanted life-prolonging procedures for one day more than is reasonably necessary to resolve the legal issue of the state's authority to intrude into her private medical decisions," Baird said.
When Felos filed the lawsuit on Oct. 21, Baird said a "strong legal basis" existed to issue an immediate temporary injunction to block the "presumptively unconstitutional legislation and executive action."
But the judge said he declined to immediately act "in deference to the other two branches of government" so they might file legal briefs defending the law.
Baird's order left little doubt the governor may face a difficult legal battle defending the law.
"We're obviously very pleased," said Felos, who was surprised by the directness of the judge's words at a brief hearing and in a later order. "I really hope the governor takes some time to consider the remarks of the court and abandon the game of procedural delay."
Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, a group working with Felos on the suit, called Baird's ruling "as strongly worded a rebuke of the governor that one could imagine."
Jill Bratina, Bush's spokeswoman, said the governor's lawyers filed an appeal Friday with the 2nd District Court of Appeal, objecting to Baird's refusal to halt proceedings in the lawsuit.
"We still believe everyone involved in this case ought to abide by legal rules to ensure an orderly process resulting in a decision that fully considers all relevant facts, rather than a rush to judgment that serves no one well," Bratina said in a statement. "This case has life or death consequences, and mistakes are not correctable."
Bush's lawyers asked Baird to dismiss Michael Schiavo's challenge of Terri's Law on procedural grounds last week. Baird refused.
Bush then appealed that decision to the 2nd District Court of Appeal, and the lawsuit before Baird was put on automatic hold until that appeal was decided.
But Baird said Friday that there was no compelling state interest to freeze proceedings and ordered the state to submit legal arguments by Monday, allowing the lawsuit to proceed even as appeals are pending.
Mrs. Schiavo, who is severely brain damaged, has been kept alive by a feeding tube for more than 13 years. Many doctors say she is in a persistent vegetative state and cannot recover. Her parents disagree with that diagnosis.
In the Oprah appearance, Mary Schindler said she remains convinced her daughter still has consciousness.
"She changes from day to day," Schindler said after viewers were shown videos of Mrs. Schiavo. "She cries. She laughs. She follows me around the room. She laughs at her dad's jokes."
At Tiger Bay, Felos criticized Florida lawmakers for their intervention in the Schiavo case "without the Legislature even bothering to read the judicial opinions."
He said the governor's stay, issued on "on whim, on caprice," flouted the Constitution and violated the doctrine of the separation of powers. It was "a frightening action in a free society."
Felos debated a representative of Not Dead Yet, a disability rights group that objects to Mrs. Schiavo's life being ended.
Diane Coleman, president of Not Dead Yet, criticized "the medical killing of people who didn't ask for it." She bemoaned what she characterized as a notion among bioethicists that "the risk of error should be reversed to favor death over life" in disputed cases.
An appearance on Larry King Live by Mrs. Schiavo's parents was canceled Friday by show producers. A family spokeswoman said they hoped a new date could be scheduled soon.
- Times staff writers Christopher Goffard and Alisa Ulferts contributed to this report, which includes information from the Associated Press.
