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WILLIAM R. LEVESQUEAttorneys for the governor want to defend "Terri's Law" and have witnesses determine Terri Schiavo's wishes.
Gov. Jeb Bush's attorneys want a jury trial to decide if Terri Schiavo really wanted to die rather than be kept alive by artificial means.
The attorneys also think the judge presiding over the lawsuit filed by Mrs. Schiavo's husband challenging "Terri's Law" is biased and want him removed from the case.
In a flurry of legal filings late Wednesday, Bush's office defended the constitutionality of the state law adopted Oct. 21 that allowed the governor to force doctors to reinsert Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube.
Ken Connor, the governor's lead attorney in the case, said the governor has the right to defend the law at trial and call witnesses to determine Mrs. Schiavo's wishes.
"Michael Schiavo is going to have to establish (at trial) that he has standing to represent his wife's interests," Connor said. "He's going to have to establish that her right to privacy is infringed, that the governor is interfering with her health care choice.
"You can't just say that. You have to prove it," he said.
Connor said the governor wasn't a party to previous litigation over Mrs. Schiavo, including the 2000 trial at which witnesses testified about her wishes.
"Simply because the governor is an elected official doesn't mean he is a second-class citizen," Connor said. "People don't get to just come in and make these bold assertions without having to prove them at trial."
George Felos, the lawyer representing Mrs. Schiavo's husband, Michael Schiavo, said the governor is simply seeking to delay the case at any cost. Felos said Mrs. Schiavo's wishes were determined by a court, and there is no need to repeat the process.
"To the general public, this is why they hate lawyers and they have disdain for the legal system," Felos said. "It is the legal system at its worst when one side just tries to set up smoke screens and tries to file anything to divert attention from real issues to delay a real reckoning."
Felos also said a jury trial is not required in the case because juries only decide factual issues. Michael Schiavo's constitutional challenge of "Terri's Law" involves only legal issues, Felos said.
"There are no factual issues in the case," he said. "It's not disputed that a court ruled that the feeding tube be removed. It's not disputed the Legislature passed the law. It's not disputed what the law said."
Mrs. Schiavo, who is severely brain damaged, has been kept alive by a feeding tube for more than 13 years after her heart stopped from a suspected potassium imbalance. Many doctors say she is in a persistent vegetative state and cannot recover. Her parents disagree with that diagnosis.
At a trial in 2000, her husband and two members of his family said Mrs. Schiavo made statements during her life indicating she would never have wanted to be kept alive by artificial means.
A judge agreed, ordering her feeding tube removed on Oct. 15. Mrs. Schiavo went six days without food and water before Bush ordered the tube reinserted.
Wednesday's filings by Connor came just minutes before the deadline set by Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Douglas Baird for Bush's office to file legal arguments defending "Terri's Law."
Bush filed the brief, and more.
Connor sought Baird's disqualification from the case, saying a ruling Baird issued last week lifting a stay in the case showed he has pre-judged the lawsuit and is ready to rule against Bush.
In that ruling, Baird criticized "Terri's Law" as a violation of Mrs. Schiavo's constitutional rights. But Baird also said he wanted the state to file legal arguments before reaching a final decision.
"The court has, in the short time that this case has been pending, made it clear that the governor cannot be afforded a fair and impartial forum" in the case, the governor's motion said.
Felos said a judge can't be removed based on a ruling simply because a litigant disagrees with the decision.
"That motion is so out of line it is arguably frivolous," Felos said.
Connor's brief defending "Terri's Law" discarded arguments that it violates Mrs. Schiavo's right to privacy, which guarantees citizens the right to make decisions about their own medical care.
Connor said the law doesn't violate Mrs. Schiavo's constitutional rights. Instead, it simply provides an extra layer of protection for her, he said.
"Her right to privacy is actually furthered and enhanced," Connor said.
Felos ridiculed the argument, saying, "An extra layer of protection? That's a nice sounding platitude. Who does Terri need protection from? The courts?"