Don't Blame the Judge

The NYT ran a story In Schiavo Feeding-Tube Case, Notoriety Finds Unlikely Judge featuring Judge George W. Greer and indicated For the past seven years, though, Judge Greer, of Circuit Court, has been at the center of one of the nation's most contentious civil cases, the battle over whether to withdraw the feeding tube of a critically brain-damaged woman, Terri Schiavo. The case has made him a target of religious conservatives and others who object to ending any life prematurely. He resigned from his Southern Baptist church and lately travels under heavy police protection, not even going to lunch unaccompanied. Over the years, the case has traveled all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Yet it always returns to Judge Greer, 63, who most recently ordered that Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube be removed on Friday.... Opponents have sent hundreds of letters and e-mail messages to the judge, picketed his courthouse in Clearwater, and, in a few cases, friends said, threatened his life..... Judge Greer could have avoided the Schiavo case by retiring early, friends said, but instead he ran in 2004 for another six-year term.

Barbara O'Brien blogs There are probably not enough clues in the world to enlighten Terri Schiavo groupies. The judge who ordered her feeding tube to be removed has received so many death threats from the pro-lifers (I'll pause and let that one sink in) that he has to have bodyguards at all times. And he's worried for the safety of his wife and children.

I don't agree with most of what Barbara writes, but I must agree with her that it does not make a lot of sense to me for a pro-lifer to threaten a judge's life.

Hugh Hewitt blogs In one of the great lapses of editorial judgment in recent years, the article quotes a friend of the judge:

"'It's killing me to watch him struggle with this,' said Mary Repper, a retired political consultant who worked on several of Judge Greer's campaigns."

Of course it will be Terry Schiavo who will end up dead if this judge's ruling stands.

That is certainly true, however Hugh just showed you the first sentence of the paragraph:

"It's killing me to watch him struggle with this," said Mary Repper, a retired political consultant who worked on several of Judge Greer's campaigns. "Armed guards with him all the time. People threatening to kill him and claiming it has something to do with the right to life - explain that, will you? I know he's concerned about his family and his wife, because it has gotten so ugly."

Mary may not die from the stress of seeing Judge Greer's struggle, and certainly Terry Schiavo will end up dead if the judge's ruling stands, but so may Judge Greer if the people that have threatened to kill him do it. I usually agree with Hugh, certainly much more than I do with Barbara, but I must split with Hugh this time. I agree with both a lot more than I agree with this next blogger:

Oliver @LiquidList blogs Lefkow. Barnes. Greer. When the President assaults the judiciary, America assaults the judiciary

U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow's husband and mother were found slain at her home, and as the linked article indicates, extremists on the Internet "are expressing satisfaction that they were killed. Whether you agree with Judge Lefkow's decisions or not, killing her or her relatives is not the solution.

Superior Court Judge Rowland W. Barnes was killed by a rape suspect in Atlanta. It had nothing to do with any political matter, and in any event Judge Barnes was appointed by the Governor of Georgia, not the President.

Circuit Court Judge George W. Greer is not appointed by the President, he is elected for six year terms, and as the NYT article indicates, he was just reelected in 2004, and he was up for election several times since the Terri Schiavo case started. If the people did not like the job he was doing, they would not have reelected him.

The matter with Terri Schiavo is certainly a disturbing one. Whether she is allowed to die, as her husband says she wanted, or whether she is kept in the state she is in, as her parents want, is not up to me to decide. I think the lesson we should all learn from Terri is that people should never depend on verbal end-of-life wishes, but that everyone should have a Living Will, such as that available here or here or here or here or here or here. But regardless of whether she lives or dies, no one should harm the judge.