/ Appeal filed

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (Reuters) - A federal judge Tuesday rejected a request from the parents of Florida woman Terri Schiavo to reinsert her feeding tube, dealing a blow to attempts by the U.S. Congress and the White House to prolong her life.... read on

In a 13-page ruling issued at dawn, U.S. District Judge James Whittemore acknowledged the gravity of the consequences in denying the request for an emergency order to restore the feeding tube. Doctors say Schiavo, 41, would likely remain alive for one to two weeks without it.

But Whittemore said he was obliged to follow the law and issue the order only if the Schindlers could show their overall case was likely to succeed in federal court, which they had not.

via Talking Points Memo:

Judge James Whittemore made it clear the Schindlers had no arguments that hadn't been heard repeatedly during the previous seven years of litigation.

The Schindlers, of course, will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals, but the odds of a reversal there are slim, and I strongly doubt the U.S. Supreme Court will want to get into this one. So the question will remain: having framed the Schiavo case as "murder" and "barbarism" and "medical terrorism," does Tom DeLay now just say, "Well, the family had its day in court," and forget about it? Or will the culture-war implications of the case make it escalate?

Guess you can tell which way I think the wind will blow.