Posted on 03/29/2005 5:10:00 AM PST by paltz
Liberals say state courts have the right to decide whether brain-damaged Florida woman Terri Schiavo lives or dies, but they held a different position in the case of Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez in 1999.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, John Fund compared the two cases and found that liberals backed federal intervention in 5-year-old Elian's case. He said they supported the Clinton administration's decision to send heavily armed Immigration and Naturalization Service agents in an early morning raid to remove Elian from the care of family members in Miami.
But, Fund notes, many of the same liberals don't believe the federal government should interfere in Terri's case. They now say state judge George Greer's decision in this case should stand - he has ruled Terri Schiavo's feeding tube should stay removed, effectively sentencing her to death - though a state judge in Elian's case had ruled the boy should remain with his relatives in Miami.
"In both cases, those who were unhappy with the courts' decisions strained to assert the federal government's power to produce a different outcome," Fund writes. "The difference is, in Mrs. Schiavo's case, Congress backed off after passing a bill that merely asked a federal court to hear the case from scratch," something that the judge who got the case, U.S. District Judge James Whittemore, "declined to do."
"By contrast," Fund continued, "those who wanted the federal government to intervene in Elian Gonzalez's case went all the way, supporting a predawn armed federal raid on the morning before Easter to seize the [boy] despite a federal appeals court's refusal to order his surrender."
Elian was picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard on Thanksgiving Day 1999, off the coast of Florida. His mother had died trying to bring him to the United States but somehow he survived.
Fund says before his case gained international attention, and before Cuban leader Fidel Castro "demanded his return," the boy was granted "parole" by the INS, which allowed him to stay in the country for a year "until his status was determined."
Fund notes that, on Dec. 1, 1999, "the INS issued a statement saying, 'Although the INS has no role in the family custody decision process, we have discussed the case with the State of Florida officials who have confirmed that the issue of legal custody must be decided by its state court."
Later, however, after getting pressure from Castro, the Clinton administration's INS reversed its decision, saying it was mistaken and that state courts could not decide Elian's fate.
In the end, the INS raided the family's home, snatched the boy at gunpoint, and shipped him back to Cuba before he could attend an asylum hearing. This came after Judge Rosa Rodriguez of Florida Family Court ruled in January 2000 "that her court had jurisdiction over [Elian] and gave [his] great uncle legal authority to represent him," Fund wrote. "Her order contravened an INS ruling that only Elian's father could speak for the boy and that he should be immediately returned to Cuba."
Attorney General Janet Reno immediately said Rodriguez's ruling had "no force or effect," even while telling reporters the government would never take Elian by force of arms.
Shortly before the raid, on April 20, 2000, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta – the very same court that has repeatedly rejected arguments by Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, to allow their daughter to be fed while she underwent further examinations and tests – ruled against the Justice Department's demand "to order Elian removed from the home of his Miami relatives," said Fund.
The court's rulings – indeed, the rule of law – didn't much matter to the Clinton regime, however. It ordered INS agents to take Elian anyway, the state judge's order be darned.
Regarding Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's refusal to heed urgent requests that he take similar action, he has vowed not to do so. "I've consistently said that I can't go beyond what my powers are, and I'm not going to do it," he said, even though he sympathizes with the Schindlers and wants to save Terri.
"Janet Reno and the Clinton administration showed no such restraint when it came to Elian Gonzalez," Fund notes.
Rouse that rabble, NewsMax. Rouse it!
There once was an woman named Terri,
who didn't vote absentee for Kerry.
To better assure a vote for Hill,
They registered her Democrat before she was killed.
Big problem with this theory.
If anything is a federal issue, it's immigration status.
The basic problem is that the Republic is dead, the Constitution is over and the rule of law is a stale joke.
Sure, the facade still holds, but really it's only us and them now.
Liberals, with few exceptions, uphold the alleged* "death wish" of an allegedly* bulimic woman by starving her to death.
Most of the compassionate people I know try to talk the mentally ill out of suicide, but George Felos fulfills the wills of bulimic people of "unsound mind"
*alleged, according to Michael.
The basic problem is that the left is dominant, and can do anything it wants. When it likes the courts, it uses the enforcement powers of the state to enforce their decisions; on those rare occasions where the court is not in accordance with the left (such as the Elian case), the left simply orders out the other powers of the government.
The left can get away with it because it has the support of the media and, sadly, the support of most of the minupulated and unthinking American people. It also has no meaningful opposition from any institution or power. Where have the Catholic bishops been while Terri is being starved to death?
Conservative = stands on principles and values
liberals = stands on whatever is politically expedient with the "ends justifying the means" and the "ends" being "power" for them.
Someone else said, "The U.S.Constitution may not be perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than what we're living under now".
This "Jimmy Carter" type of phrasing may well be the bar to higher office for Jeb Bush. It may well cost him the Presidency.
With this type of attitude how can anyone see Jeb Bush atop a pile of rubble that was the Twin Towers, with a bullhorn, rallying the people?
Do we really think that Jeb would make his legal case to the UN and then go to war anyway as his brother did?
Presidents "do", Congress "discusses", and the courts "read law". In the end it's the people who "decide" what was right or wrong.
The MSM is the most dangerous enemy of this nation.
Despite what some are claiming about them crumbling, they still control the minds of a vast majority of the Sheeple.
Thanks for posting that -- I wanted to make it bigger for all the people on here "claiming" to be conservative and then demanding President Bush and Governor Bush to break the law!
When both these fine men took their oath of office they did so knowing they had good laws on the books and bad laws but they both will be loyal to their oaths which is what I want my elected officials to be no matter the outcome.
Judge Bork said there have been instances of this all over the Country but until this case made the media, there has been no outcry. Instead of sitting behind a keyboard, why aren't some of you out working to change the law so this can never happen again? Have you contacted your State Rep and your State Senator in your own State to see what the laws are?
This "Bush" bashing isn't fooling anyone that has been around here for any length of time -- some of you are the same people now under new screen names who were bashing then Governor GW Bush and his family when I first came on here and have never stopped through two Presidential campaigns and one Governor's race. The bashers pretend to be Republicans that won't vote Republican again because of something the Bush Family has done -- lame, lame, lame. These bashers are nothing more then part of the I am going to say "I Told You So" in November (2000) when Bushlite loses crowd.
"Conservative = stands on principles and values
liberals = stands on whatever is politically expedient with the "ends justifying the means" and the "ends" being "power" for them."
And Republicans stand for whatever the demoncrats tell them to stand for because they dont have the balls to stand up for themselves, the American people or the Constitution. You can thank GW for Hitlery as president in 08.
I think that's true. The misinformation and uninformed quality of the common person makes these polls irrelevant.
Yes, they phonied up a poll then published the poll that said just what they want people to believe. They got 60% of the people like this, and that is frightening.
BTW, the other difference between Elian and Terri is that Terry has police defending her against any attempt to rush the hospice. Elian was only defended by citizens.
You have got to be kidding. He has been the biggest thorn in the side of the liberal elite in any of our lifetimes. No individual, including Ronald Reagan, has governed in direct opposition to the liberal agenda as GWB has. Sure there are places where he compromises and moves to the center, but we would never have an elected Republican in the White House if there was no compromise on any issue. A President has to get elected before he can initiate change.
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