I’m not sure why I even try to write about national legal issues like the Schiavo case when I know that Dahlia Lithwick will just come along and kick my amateur ass to the gutter.

You can put aside the doctrine of federalism for Terri Schiavo, and the principles of separation of powers, and comity, and of deference to finality and the rule of law. But you’d want to be certain, on the day you do so, that what you’re sacrificing them for [is] some concrete legal value that matters a whole lot more. Subordinating a centuries-old culture of law to an amorphous, legally meaningless “culture of life,” is not a decision to be taken over a weekend.

Go read it — she’s still the best in the game at elevating the level of conversation by cutting through the bullshit and laying bare the whole picture.