The Rhetoric of Disputes in the Courts, the Media, and the Legislature

Abstract

The Schiavo case is our immediate subject. The transaction there involved a traumatic injury to Ms. Schiavo, her husband's immediate and subsequent responses to her condition, her prolonged period of apparent mental dormancy, the original and repeated judicial proceedings addressing whether to continue sustaining her in life, and the prolonged and intense disputes over the proper answers to those questions. One ofthe eventual responses was the extraordinary enactment by Congress of legislation granting the federal courts jurisdiction to address the case. A further response was that of the federal courts in declining to address the merits of the underlying controversy, in deference to the decisions made by the Florida state courts. A still further response was denunciation by congressional critics of the proceedings, complaining in essence that the federal courts had not been activist enough.