It's time to take a star off the flag and recall the state quarter. Florida is no longer a separate state.
The onslaught against Florida's autonomy began in 2000, with the absurd ruling that is Bush v. Gore, when the US Supreme Court decided, against all Constitutional text and precedent, that the federal courts were in better position to interpret Florida law than Florida's own courts.
And now, once again, the federal government has decided that its organs are better equipped to interpret Florida law than Florida itself. Cases such as Terri Schiavo's are normally left to the states to adjudicate under their own laws, with their own judiciaries. And adjudicate the Florida courts did. Thoroughly. And repeatedly, each time reaching the same result.
Regardless of what you may think about right-to-die cases in general, or this case in particular, the move by the United States Congress should shock Americans everywhere. Congress has broken out of its Constitutionally prescribed boundaries and reached into the domain of powers left to the states.
As the nation has developed there has sometimes been tension between the powers left to the states and those that the Federal government would prefer to wield. But this case, and this legislation, defies any legitimate rationale for federal involvement and constitutes an enormous power grab by the Federal legislature, claiming power over individual citizens that it has no Constitutional right to.
It violates the bargain that was struck when the Constitution was passed, when there was suspicion by the individual sovereign states about having their autonomy usurped by a centralized overarching government. Florida bought into that bargain in 1845 when it became a state. But now, in 2005, Florida's privilege and power of statehood have apparently been revoked.