FYI: A very conservative judge on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rebukes Congress and others over thei involvement in the Schiavo case, for trying to usurp the discretion of judges, and criticizes them for chanting a mantra about “activist judges”.

KR Washington Bureau | 03/30/2005 | Conservative judge blasts Bush, Congress for role in Schiavo case: “Conservative judge blasts Bush, Congress for role in Schiavo case

By Stephen Henderson

Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The latest rejection of the Terri Schiavo case by a federal court was accompanied by a stinging rebuke of Congress and President Bush from a seemingly unlikely source: Judge Stanley F. Birch Jr., one of the most conservative jurists on the federal bench.

Birch authored opinions upholding Alabama’s right to ban the sale of sex toys and Florida’s ability to prohibit adoptions by gay couples. Both rulings drew the ire of liberal activists and the elation of traditional and social conservatives.

Yet, in Wednesday’s 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision to deny a rehearing to Schiavo’s parents, Birch went out of his way to castigate Bush and congressional Republicans for acting ‘in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers’ blueprint for governance of a free people - our Constitution.’”