Pat Buchanan: The Execution of Terri Schiavo

[The Duke]

Dazzleman,

The sad thing is, so many Republicans were on the side of the kill Terri stuff.  Did you ever think you'd see the day that that Jesse Jackson, Lanny Davis, and Ralph Nader were on the side of life, while Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and William Rehnquist were against it?  No normal person could be a rabidly pro states rights as Thomas, Scalia, and Rehnquist (not even the poster whose NAME is Statesrights).  We need to rethink entirely the kind of people we're putting on the bench.

[The Duke]

Snowe08,

The last thing we need is another Scalia.

The Roper ruling was based on, as Justice Kennedy termed it, "evolving standards of decency".  In other words, he ruled that our rights are subject to public opinion polls.  That is judicial activism.

It is NOT judicial activism however to accept that there are substantive components to the due process clause, as the Federal Courts should have done in this case, and been more proactive in defending Terri Schiavo.

Florida's legislature DID write a new law.  The courts struck it down.  More activism.  News falsh to the naive: You can't rewrite the law if the courts always strikes down your new law.

[The Duke]

Due process is not only procedural. There is a substantiuve component to the due process clause as well.