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WILLIAM R. LEVESQUEThe Supreme Court won't reconsider its ruling that declared "Terri's Law" unconstitutional.
The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously declined a request by Gov. Jeb Bush to reconsider its order declaring "Terri's Law" unconstitutional, closing another legal avenue in the efforts to keep Terri Schiavo alive.
The law, passed a year ago, had allowed Bush to order doctors to reinsert a feeding tube into the brain-damaged woman.
Lawyers for Michael Schiavo, who seeks to end his wife's life because he says she would not want to live by artificial means, said the latest legal decision means they will be free once again to remove the feeding tube once they get the court mandate in the mail, perhaps by today.
But George Felos, an attorney for Michael Schiavo, said he will wait for one more key ruling expected today from a Pinellas-Pasco circuit judge. Felos declined to say exactly when he might seek again to remove the feeding tube that has kept Terri Schiavo alive for more than 14 years.
Lawyers for Bush could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, a decision that a spokeswoman for the governor said had not yet been made.
"Any reasonable person looking at this recognizes that the governor is using legal proceedings solely for the purposes of delay," Felos said. "The court is sending a clear message: Enough is enough. No more."
Bush told the Associated Press on Thursday that he was disappointed in the ruling but had not yet discussed the next step with his attorneys.
"The legal process is narrowing down to not many options for us, but we will review them and see what the next step will be," Bush said.
Attorneys for Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, could not be reached for comment Thursday, and the governor's lead attorney, Ken Connor, did not return a call.
On Sept. 23, the state supreme court ruled "Terri's Law" unconstitutional, in part, because it violates the separation of powers between the courts and the executive branch of state government.
"We respect that. It's critical to our system of government," Bush spokeswoman Jill Bratina said Thursday. "At the same time, it shouldn't deprive anyone to their rights of due process."
She said the courts abridged the governor's constitutionally guaranteed due process rights by refusing to let him fully litigate the case.
One of the last hopes for the Schindlers to keep their daughter alive now rests in the hands of a Pinellas-Pasco circuit judge.
Judge George Greer, who has previously ruled Schiavo would not want to be kept alive by artificial means, is expected to rule today whether to grant a minitrial to hear evidence that could ultimately prevent her feeding tube's removal.
Greer has been asked to decide whether recent statements by Pope John Paul II saying people in vegetative states have a right to health care and nutrition would mean Schiavo, as a devout Catholic, would now want to live.
Schiavo collapsed in 1990 from a suspected chemical imbalance that some doctors think might have been related to bulimia.
She left no living will, which left the courts to decide whether she would want to live in her current condition. The 40-year-old woman lives in a Clearwater nursing home.
Michael Schiavo says her condition is irreversible and she would not want to live. The Schindlers disagree, saying their daughter might be helped by therapy.
They deny, as the husband insists, that she made statements before 1990 saying she would not want to live in such a condition.
The case has been bitterly litigated for six years, the feeding tube removed two separate times only to be ordered reinserted. Felos refused Thursday to predict the case's path given its history of unexpected twists.
"We're going to take this one day at a time," he said.