Category Archives: Law

Letter of the Week: A Note from Bobby, Terri Schiavo's Brother

Conservatism, Criminal Injustice, Ethics, Justice, Law, Morality, Natural Law

Dear Ms. Mercer,

I wanted to sincerely thank you for your column regarding my sister Terri.

It seems to me that many of our conservatives brethren began their exodus when the media made it their mission to justify Terri’s death by misreporting the autopsy report, which by the way, was prejudiced in order to avoid any legal ramifications.

I firmly believe that the jaundiced autopsy results have been and are still being erroneously reported by our popular media as a reason to negatively influence the constituents of those politicians that supported my family’s efforts to help my sister. As a result, it seems to me that no one in Washington had/has the courage to make the point that regardless of someone’s condition, intentionally killing an innocent disabled person, guilty of nothing more than becoming an inconvenience, is intolerable.

However, as you pointed out so eloquently in your column, Terri’s condition (or the autopsy results) should have made no difference in the decision to kill my sister, particularly when so much uncertainly existed in regards to her “wishes”. Not to mention Terri’s suspicious collapse.

It truly was unfortunate that many of our “friends” in Congress were duped by the deliberate inaccurate reporting of Terri’s autopsy and went voiceless when Terri’s issue became an election topic. Just as frustrating, however, was many of your media colleagues also went silent when at one time they were very supportive of Terri and our family. Their silence served to exacerbate the horrible injustice that was endured by my sister.

We all need to recognize that what happened to Terri was happening for many years prior to her death and continues everyday across our nation.

Sincerely,
Bobby Schindler
Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation
5562 Central Avenue, Suite 2
St. Petersburg, FL 33707
727-490-7603
www.terrisfight.org

Saddam’s Sentencing

Iraq, Justice, Law

Saddam’s sentencing must be seen in the context of an Iraq that has been decimated by an illegal and immoral invasion and is awash with blood spilled by hundreds of mini-tyrants who’ve replaced the secular Saddam. These fulltime, rather than occasional, murderers are exacting their revenge upon their neighbors. Remove one Saddam, who kept a lid on the cauldron of crime and corruption that is Iraq, and there’ll be another waiting to take his place—and another and another. Just like a shark’s teeth.

The trial, in which every requirement of the 6th Amendment was flouted, did not even qualify as a show-trial. At the rate at which trial attorneys were being eliminated, the proceedings had to be clandestine and were thoroughly corrupted.

The Reign of Terror during the French Revolution is a better metaphor for justice coming out of terror-riddled Iraq; the Revolutionary Assembly better approximates the Iraqi court. Terror during the French Revolution was, after all, executed by popular demand.

Saddam's Sentencing

Iraq, Justice, Law

Saddam’s sentencing must be seen in the context of an Iraq that has been decimated by an illegal and immoral invasion and is awash with blood spilled by hundreds of mini-tyrants who’ve replaced the secular Saddam. These fulltime, rather than occasional, murderers are exacting their revenge upon their neighbors. Remove one Saddam, who kept a lid on the cauldron of crime and corruption that is Iraq, and there’ll be another waiting to take his place—and another and another. Just like a shark’s teeth.

The trial, in which every requirement of the 6th Amendment was flouted, did not even qualify as a show-trial. At the rate at which trial attorneys were being eliminated, the proceedings had to be clandestine and were thoroughly corrupted.

The Reign of Terror during the French Revolution is a better metaphor for justice coming out of terror-riddled Iraq; the Revolutionary Assembly better approximates the Iraqi court. Terror during the French Revolution was, after all, executed by popular demand.

A Republic, if You Can Keep It

America, Constitution, Federalism, Founding Fathers, Individual Rights, Law, Natural Law

Yesterday Bush signed “The Military Commissions Act of 2006.” I went in search for a libertarian analysis, but found only a few splenetic screeds. While perfectly understandable, these execrations do nothing to dissect the implications of the Bill for Americans. As I read them, I knew I ought to be furious about torture. However, too little was being said about the erosion of due process, constitutional protections and the accretion of executive power.

Libertarians need to cite chapter and verse in the actual Bill and then logically and calmly explain its implications for Americans. (It is very possible that, because of his visceral contempt for the Constitution as a so-called statist document, the anarchist can’t rise to the occasion. However, he may want to bear in mind that to the extent the Constitution comports with natural law, it’s both laudable and legitimate.)

In any case, right or wrong, to security-crazed Americans, the constant squealing about torture is a signal to switch off, as it conjures the namby-pamby liberal whose concerns are, overwhelmingly, with the “evil doers.” Readers are likelier to be swayed by arguments that address the possibility of detention without trial of US citizens and the sundering of habeas corpus and the separation of powers.

Finally, I found this, which does just that. This piece from Reason offers a gist of the administration’s impetus vis-a-vis the Bill. This next piece, however, is unhelpful. Libertarians will get its Bastiatian thrust, but, bar some left-liberals, the rest will find it smarmy and juvenile. You don’t have to agree with everything Jonathan Turley says to find him inspiring. (I certainly don’t. Contra Turley, America is a republic, not a democracy, and hence not meant to manufacture “majoritarian” outcomes. And France’s centralized system is the truly ugly system.) There’s a precis of a talk he gave here. Or you can listen to him here.