Saw this in the Ohio board at freerepublic.com. It’s a typical chain letter than we robots are supposed to send to Congress.

At the time of this post, HR 1151 nor S. 539 do not appear on Thomas. The letter’s body reads:

Congressman / Senator XXXXX,

With regards to representative Weldon’s proposed bill 1151 (see above for correct designations) titled the Incapacitated Person’s Legal Protection Act, I encourage you to give this favorable consideration.

Clearly, state Circuit Courts are not applying the law appropriately in a number of cases throughout the United States as it relates to vulnerable and incapacitated persons and their retained rights. A measure like bill 1151 would give these innocent people a Federal avenue of review that we consider a retained right of criminals. I believe the rights of the disabled amongst us should be no less vigorously defended than the rights of those who have broken the law.

I also believe that without such Federal protection, cases such as these will grow more complicated and burdensome on the state courts and innocent lives will be lost.

Please do the right thing for America’s disabled and give your unwavering favorable consideration to this act.

By “vulnerable and incapacitated persons” I am assuming this is in reference to Terri Schiavo and other cases where the wishes of the incapacitated are not known. I know of several that have been following that case, and at this point the news seems grim. As much as it may seem obvious to us that she needs to be saved, this post-tragedy action is ill-advised for several reasons.

First and foremost, we would be, again, condoning the bad behavior of judges.

Secondly, federal courts, where this law would be applied, are not immune to idiocy. I do believe we have heard about the 9th “Circus” (thanks George Will) Court of Appeals, who consistently gets overturned, postpones elections arbitrarily, ignores the 2nd Amendment, and is now getting sued for its display of the Ten Commandments, which I’m sure has nothing to do with their determination that “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance was a violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment. Surely a court that determines that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” means something altogether different can make short work of the words “incapacitated”, “person”, or even “legal”.

Of course, there is that 10th Amendment, but we jumped over that slippery slope years ago.

Impeach the judges and stop this bad behavior, and in your own personal interest, get down on notarized paper your wishes should you be unable to voice them tomorrow. If you don’t feel that’s doing enough, pray for a miracle for Terri.