Friday, March 18, 2005

Congress versus the Axis of Evil

It's not very often we get to see an attempted murder played out live and in real time. Hopefully, it won't be a frequent occurrence.

As we should have expected, the case of Teri Schiavo is beginning to become much more than just the story of one man's determination to kill his wife. Now it's testing the very fabric of federalism. Congress has subpoenaed Teri Schiavo -- and her husband -- as witnesses for hearings on the 25th.

I'm personally very conflicted about this transparent ploy to stave off Teri's execution, using dubious congressional authority as the instrument. Federal intervention is never pretty and usually has horrible consequences even if the intentions are good.

Then again, if the Florida courts had given Teri Schiavo the equal protection of the law to which she is entitled under the 14th Amendment, we'd never have heard about this case. The judge would have simply told Michael Schiavo "no, you can't murder your wife -- we have laws against that," and that would have been the end of it.

Maybe federal intervention is the only way to redeem Florida from its courts' determination to make it a rogue state.

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