An Independent Judiciary

If there is anything positive to come out of the Schiavo circus, it is that an array of state and federal judges have been consistent in reading the law, despite enormous political pressure to do otherwise.

Terri Schiavo's family has not only had its day in court, it has had multiple days in an array of courts, all with the same result. The rule of law has been upheld.

Schiavo's sister, Suzanne Vitadamo, told Larry King on CNN she couldn't understand how a Florida judge could rule as he did, without paying attention to the President, Gov. Jeb Bush, and Congress. How could the judge have the power to do that and ignore the powers that be, she asked angrily. She apparently has never heard of the separation of powers concept that guides how this country operates.

The judiciary's independence, and its status as an equal branch of government, gave those judges the freedom they needed to follow the law even while hearing arguments in the eye of a politically-driven media hurricane.

That is a remarkable testament to the checks and balances we all learned about in civics. It may restore some of the credibility lost by the judicial system in the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election.

On the other hand, it may ignite a right-wing witch hunt to purge the bench of independent thinkers. There are some scary people involved, like Randall Terry of Operation Rescue, who tried and failed to deny women access down Milwaukee's family planning and abortion clinics through illegal blockades in 1993. Terry is the Schiavo family's spokesman.

UPDATE: The possibility of a right-wing purge seems real. The person saying the scariest stuff is the ethically challenged Tom DeLay, who threatened retribution against the judges. DeLay, who may be on his way to prison instead of reelection, doesn't understand the role of the judiciary either. DeLay says the courts "thumbed their nose at Congress and the President," by following the law. As well they should have. Story

UPDATE/CORRECTION: One of the women who organized the clinic defense activists in Milwaukee when the anti-choice zealots tried to shut down family planning and abortion clinics tells me that Operation Rescue and Randall Terry were not the villains who came in to break the law and intimidate women here. It was Matt Trewhella and Missionaries to the Preborn who ran the Milwaukee action. Sorry, wrong nut case.