Wednesday, February 04, 2004

Terri Schiavo's Plight: A Case Study in Judicial Bias

"In other words, the guardianship plan is supposed to be reviewed by the court prospectively, not retrospectively, which makes sense since its purpose is to ensure that the plan is appropriate to the ward's future needs. (This is not the same thing at all as reviewing an accounting of past expenditures.) Moreover, the approved guardianship plan constitutes the guardian's authority to act, and the guardian's actions are limited by the contents of the plan in the coming year. Thus, it would appear that a Florida guardian of the person has no legal authority in the absence of an approved plan.
Yet, despite these very clear statutory mandates, Judge Greer only shrugs his shoulders at Schiavo's apparent unwillingness to file annual plans. Indeed, he has instead six times granted Schiavo's requests for 'time extensions' for the July 2001-June 2002 plan. It is now almost 3 years late. He also just approved a time extension permitting Schiavo further time to file his guardianship report that should have been in place between July 2002 and June 2003. By granting these repeated extensions Judge Greer sends a clear message to Michael Schiavo: I am not going to require you to comply with the statutes."

Don't you love it when the "rule of law" becomes an excuse to push your agenda by only upholding the laws you like?

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