Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
Posted on 04/09/2005 4:58:13 PM PDT by tutstar
In all my years dealing with constitutional law, I have always said no to judicial impeachment even when from time to time on various issues some conservative activists have argued for it in specific situations. I can generally provide people more arguments against impeachment than for it where judges are concerned. Sometimes I cannot provide arguments for impeachment at all, because all the valid arguments from my point of view mitigated against judicial impeachment in those situations.
The Schiavo matter is dramatically different. Not only am I convinced that judicial impeachment applies here, I am convinced that it applies to every federal judge in the chain from the district court judge who first received the case under the act signed by President Bush, through the appeals judges of the 11th Circuit, to all nine sitting members of the U.S. Supreme Court, with the exception of the one or two judges that bucked the system.
This is the first time in my several decades of dealing with constitutional law that such a situation exists. I never imagined that I would see this situation in my entire lifetime or in my professional career.
The key points are summarized here. They are based on two one-hour radio talkshow interviews I did locally this week which laid out the matter in some detail.
First, Article III uses the words "good behavior" as the term of art dealing with the impeachment of federal judges. The Constitution uses the words "high crimes and misdemeanors" as the standard of impeachment for the executive and legislative branches. "High crimes and misdemeanors" is a higher and more rigid standard than "good behavior" in Article III. In the Schiavo matter, the misconduct on the part of the federal judiciary violates both standards. It violates the "high crimes and misdemeanors" standard because by refusing to protect the substantive right to life of Ms. Schiavo under the 14th Amendment, and treating the matter as strictly procedural, the various judges made themselves accessories to murder. It violates the "good behavior" standard for the sorts of reasons explained by William Blackstone in his Commentaries on the Laws of England.
The federal courts obstinately refused in the Schiavo matter to employ a jurisprudence of constitutionally protected inalienable rights mandated by the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the rights model of original American jurisprudence from the era of the Founders, and as extended to state misconduct by the 14th Amendment.
The federal courts refused to judicially notice that we prosecuted people for war crimes at Nuremberg for the very sorts of actions taken and required by the Florida state courts in clear violation of the original meaning of inalienable rights and due process of law.
Under our federal union, there has never been a power in any state to execute anyone not convicted of a crime and who has not been indicted and/or tried criminally. Under our federal union and under the constitutions and bills of rights of every individual state, the right to life is inalienable. At the state level, that right can only be lost by an individual person through an act of wrongdoing constituting a forfeiture and adjudicated as such through a criminal trial where due process would apply. Executing an innocent person through a civil process is ultra vires by definition and has been ultra vires for over two hundred years of American experience. Having occurred in the Schiavo matter, the question is not one of due process because there can be no such process, period. Where such occurs, as it has here, it is an act of state tyranny by definition, the ground upon which we fired the king of England.
When people say Ms. Schiavo received due process that is not true because the state is not permitted to have such a process, period. For any state to have a process that executes a person or citizen unconvicted of a crime is not a matter of due process because there can be no such process. The 14th Amendment mandates that the right to life be protected by the federal government if a state materially fails in its duty to secure the inalienable right to life. For any federal judge to fail in that 14th Amendment duty is "bad behavior" and criminal negligence. When the federal courts treated the matter pro forma as a procedural one rather than one of substantive rights, the courts materially breached their duty to a person who is also a citizen of the United States under the 14th Amendment with both personhood and citizenship rights. In light of the fact that the federal judges' malfeasance has materially redefined (by inaction) something as fundamental to all persons and American citizens as the right to life, and demonstrated by precedent that the federal courts criminally disregard their duty to uphold the right to life, they have failed to maintain the standard of good conduct required of a federal judge and forfeited the respect and obedience of the American people.
For these and related reasons, every federal judge involved in the execution of Terri Schiavo has violated his/her office as judge and has committed the high crime of being an accessory to murder. Therefore every judge so tainted MUST be impeached by Congress and removed from the bench.
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
Just curious, which one or two do you have in mind that can stay?
The original American idea had only One Sovereign. It was not the Courts, the Legislatures, or the Executives, or even we The People.
April 18, 1775 John Adams and John Hancock were at the home of Rev. Jonas Clarke, a Lexington pastor and militia leader. That same night Paul Revere arrived to warn them of the approaching Redcoats. The next morning British Major Pitcairn shouted to an assembled regiment of Minutemen; "Disperse, ye villains, lay down your arms in the name of George the Sovereign King of England." The immediate response was:
"We recognize no Sovereign but God and no King but Jesus."
At the signing of the Declaration of Independence Samuel Adams said:
"We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come.
Cordially
Actually the argument works both ways equally well..
Catch 22, kind of..
http://www.therealitycheck.org/GuestColumnist/dredscott_terrischiavo-4.pdf
(The link was posted in post 1)
Greer also reemphasized his order, when he specifically denied the request to allow Terri's feeding by mouth. That judge is a MONSTER!
http://www.terrisfight.org/documents/030805orderdenyfood.pdf
ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that Respondents' Emergency Expedited Motion for permission to provide Theresa Schiavo with Food and Water by natural means is DENIED.
Terri ping! If anyone would like to be added to or removed from my Terri ping list, please let me know by FReepmail!
Senator Jim King. Didn't he receive contributions for
his campaign from the very insurance company that Jodi
works for and where Michael is on the board of directors?
Wow, tutstar. When you say MUST READ, you ain't whistlin' Dixie! Every literate citizen in America should read this.
Terri ping! If anyone would like to be added to or removed from my Terri ping list, please let me know by FReepmail!
Mae Magouirk safe for now. See Tekgnosis for further details.
Tell the Media to report the REAL Schiavo polls!
http://capwiz.com/sicminc/issues/alert/?alertid=7351686&type=ME
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/4/emw226586.htm
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/prweb/20050408/bs_prweb/prweb226586_3
My account, etc. of Terri Schindler's Funeral Mass:
http://tekgnosis.typepad.com
What exactly do you suggest?
If The Empire Journal hasn't been trying to help, just what would YOU call their coverage of the case
If The Empire Journal hasn't been trying to help, just what would YOU call their coverage of the case
Phil:
The Empire Journal did a story on Greer's refusal to release the files to St. Petersburg Times
http://www.theempirejournal.com/0402051_greer_denies_release_of.htm
He was supposed to hear a similar motion Monday, April 4 from the Tampa Tribune but there's no reason to believe that he did anything different with that motion. The supposed reason why he didn't open the files to the public is that DCF is presumably still conducting an investigation and opening the files would "interfere" with that investigation. I think release would make DCF that much more accountable. DCF isn't going to do anything. Had they been serious about doing their job, they would have done it, taken her into protective custody under 415. They didn't need to go to Greer to do so---but they did because they knew he would deny it and that's what they wanted. DCF needs to be investigated---Nagatani and all the higher ups. DCF is as much a reason that Terri died as Greer. DCF never protected her
< P >
What ever happened to "Tarred And Feathered And Run Out Of Town" ??? ;-))
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...The procedures established by the federal judges themselves at their own whim are now deemed by them of greater magnitude and importance than the inalienable rights of persons that the 14th Amendment was ratified to protect!...
That's it in a nutshell. Great read. Thanks.
Don't Delay, Tom. Stop corrupt judges from robbing and killing innocent Americans.
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Thank you for caring & sharing.
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One thing though, it is apparent that most of Congress, and the New Media has shut off any further discussion concerning Terri Schiavo. I think it is a ghastly mistake to do so, but perhaps they are spooked by the malicious but inane polls which adds to their collective weakness.
It's a horrific crime that was willfully and capriciously perpetrated upon such an innocent defenseless handicapped woman.
But, there is a bright shining light of strength and resolve and I find it in Tom Delay...he's the MAN. Is it any wonder that the left is so afraid of his strength and successful accomplishments?
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