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Jewish World Review March 23, 2005 / 12 Adar II, 5765 Terri Schiavo and partisan hypocrisy By Rich Lowry
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
In response to the GOP-led congressional
action intended to restore
Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, those
Democrats in opposition have
attacked Republican hypocrisy in the
case. Why suddenly, they ask, is the
party of federalism and hostility to
an overweening federal judiciary
interfering in a state matter and
handing the Schiavo case to a federal
judge?
If it is disorienting to see
Republicans scrambling for federal
intervention, at least they are acting
on their deepest pro-life convictions
— life is to be treasured in whatever
form it takes, and preserving it is a
paramount value. The starkest inconsistencies
are on the other side, on
the part of liberals who ordinarily
support the federalization of everything,
but can't bear the thought of a
federal judge reviewing the facts of
the Schiavo case to determine
whether or not she should be starved
to death.
Let's stipulate for the sake of argument
that the facts of the Schiavo
case are in dispute (and they really
are) — whether she is in a persistent
vegetative state, whether she can
improve, whether she had previously
expressed a desire to die in these circumstances.
Then, let's tally the
inconsistencies.
Federal habeas review. Deathrow
inmates, as a matter of course,
appeal their cases in the federal
courts, even after they have been in
the state courts (like the Schiavo
case) for years. Liberals have traditionally
defended this federal habeas
review, even when it drags on endlessly.
In the 1990s, Republicans
passed legislation signed by
President Clinton limiting death-row
inmates to one federal appeal.
Democratic Rep. John Conyers
attacked the bill as "inconsistent with
our democratic system of laws."
Conyers was one of 53 House
Democrats — half of all Democrats
voting — to oppose giving Schiavo
essentially the same right to have her
case reviewed by a federal judge that
he supports for convicted killers.
Civil rights. Under the Schiavo
bill, a federal judge will review
whether any of her federal civil
rights have been violated. Since
when do Democrats oppose federal
scrutiny of potential civil-rights violations?
They have consistently used
the 14th Amendment to make what
had previously been local matters —
from voting rights to housing — the
jurisdiction of the federal government
on civil-rights grounds. They
supported federal intervention in
2000 to investigate traffic stops on
the New Jersey turnpike that allegedly
violated motorists' rights. Traffic
stops! But federal judicial review of
whether Schiavo should live or die is
out of bounds?
The disabled. Liberals have, to
their great credit, been defenders of
the disabled. They passed the
Americans with Disabilities Act in
1990, a sweeping federal law to prevent
the disabled from, for instance,
being denied access to movie theaters
— a minor question, surely,
compared with being denied sustenance.
A principled Democrat in this
regard is Sen. Tom Harkin (Iowa), an
advocate for the disabled who supports
taking "every precaution" in
the Schiavo case.
Violence against women. In the
early 1990s, Democrats championed
legislation to create federal penalties
for gender-related violence. In other
words, every time some abusive husband
slaps his wife, it is a federal
matter. But when a husband — with
motivations questioned by his wife's
family — wants to starve his wife,
suddenly some Democrats become
George Wallace-like opponents of
federal power.
The death penalty. Whenever
life-related issues arise, liberals ask:
How can conservatives favor preserving
life when they support executing
people? There's an answer for
that (for another day), but the more
acute question is for the other side:
How can you oppose death sentences
for killers, but support one, in effect,
for Schiavo, whose only crime is not
being capable of feeding herself?
Of course, it's possible to oppose
the Schiavo bill on principled procedural
grounds, maintaining that it is
not the business of Congress or the
federal courts. But one suspects that
as soon as they are considering anything
other than the fate of poor Terri
Schiavo, liberals will lose their newfound
suspicion of federal action.
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© 2005 King Features Syndicate |
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