| we thought the subpoenas would work because you can't tamper with a federal witness... why should anything else work if greer is just going to ignore it, and Jeb won't use actual force?
We already know that the federal government wins these things. But Jeb is not a federal officer. For him to use force here starts something that we probably don't want to get into... executive branch officers ignoring court rulings and using "force" to impose their wills. We don't want that in America. Yes, the woman is hungry at the moment, but she isn't going to die today. There is still time to do this in a way that doesn't poke holes in our common understanding of who's in charge. The feds put lawyers on the plane to Florida yesterday. Today some time, they will get a federal judge to issue an order putting the tube back in until the Senate's subpoena has been satisfied, i.e. until March 25. The federal court order will trump Greer's court order, and federal marshals can go in to enforce the federal order, if necessary. Between now and March 25, the Congress will agree on some law that gives people in Terri's condition (no written living will, etc.) access to the federal courts. Bush will sign it. That starts the whole struggle over again, but this time in the federal courts. That will take years. |
Cool your jets. People are trying to do this in a way that doesn't set precedents that might come back to bite us. Greer does not seem to be on that team; he decided to precipitate a showdown with the federal government.