The Schiavo Lesson

The tragic tale of Terri Schiavo will soon end with her death. We will never know whether this outcome was the one she wanted or not, and I won't dwell on the debate, which can never be settled, over which side of her family was in the right.

What we can take away from this sad saga is yet another lesson in how our unelected judges have freed themselves from any adherence to law. Congress convened in extraordinary circumstances to pass a law requiring the federal courts to look at the Schiavo case afresh. They did not; indeed, they made a point of ignoring the law and sticking their judicial finger in the eye of the US Congress.

All this comes at the same instant as the unbelievable opinion of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in the case of the juvenile death penalty. The "justice" clearly structured his thinking to ignore our laws and the US Constitution, and to substitute in their stead international opinion and treaties of which the US is not part, all to come to a conclusion that supports chiefly the personal opinion of one Anthony Kennedy.

It is past high time we begin the long road of addressing this growing problem of illegal judicial activism. Judges who acknowledge no higher authority than their own enlightened opinions are in violation of their oaths, and should go.

UPDATE 3/26: Here's an excellent article by Thomas Sowell on the matter.