The must be worried, for sure.
The ACLU thought it had Florida in it's pocket. Now they have to defend their position. Their honoree, Judge Kogan, came out in support of Schiavo the other day. Which worm will emerge from the woodwork next?
The Florida ACLU gave an award to the Former chief Justice of the Florida State Supreme Court, Gerald Kogan, who is a supporter of doctor-assisted suicide (aka, doctor assisted dying).
Interestingly, Kogan wants the death penalty eliminated because, if a mistake is made the innocent person who was executed can not be brought back from the grave.
Annual ACLU banquet honors Justice Kogan
(Ironic --- a banquet to honor someone who believes in starving innocent people.)
Always the courageous judge, Justice Kogan used his years on the bench to defend a wide range of individual rights. In 1997, as Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court, Kogan dissented from the majority decision in Krischer v. McIver, the Florida test case on physician assistance in death brought by the ACLU on behalf of terminally ill patient Charles Hall and his physician Dr. Cecil McIver. Tragically, the court held that Hall had no right to self-determination in the manner of his own death. A five member majority ruled that intensely personal, private matters of individual autonomy should be left in the hands of the Legislature. "When his pain becomes unbearable," Chief Justice Kogan wrote in a stirring dissent, "which one of us on this Court will be at his bedside telling him to be brave and bear it?"
Kogan is on record saying there is no difference between having a doctor kill a patient and halting medical care for a patient.
The award was also given to Kogan for his strong anti-death penalty stand
Doubts surround Florida's use of the death penalty
But some, including former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerald Kogan, believe innocent people have been put to death. Kogan has said he has no question that Florida has executed people who were not guilty of the crime for which they were condemned.