March 29, 2005
The pending and almost certain death of Terri Schiavo underscores the need for putting judges on federal and state courts who believe in the constitution, not their view of the constitution.
The two are quite different.
The freelance laws that are being made result in an estranged husband having the right of life and death over his wife, but if she were pregnant and wanted to abort, he would have no rights at all.
In divorce proceedings, the wife could sue him and even if he wanted to stay married, a court would not give him that right.
But he can permanently divorce his wife by refusing to feed her and she dies.
Does this sound just?
It is a truism that hard cases make bad law, but it is also true that bad law makes hard cases.
There are many disparities in the law, because we have turned our backs on the law-giver.
The founders understood the necessity of placing certain rights outside the reach of man, such as the right to life.
When that right is given by man, it can be removed by man.
That is what we have seen in abortion and are increasingly seeing in other life and death cases.
I’m Cal Thomas in Washington.
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C. Watch his television show, After Hours with Cal Thomas, on the Fox News Channel, Saturdays at 11 p.m. Eastern Time.
