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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview with Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, Nelda Blair
Aired October 25, 2003 - 08:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to our Legal Briefs. First, the gut wrenching life or death battle over the Florida woman, Terry Schiavo, who is in a coma like state. Also, a rookie Philadelphia teacher just one week into the job is taking his school to court over unruly students.
Our legal eagles, civil rights attorney Lida Rodriguez-Taseff joining us from our Miami bureau.
Good morning to you, Lida.
LIDA RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Good morning.
COLLINS: And former Texas prosecutor Nelda Liz Blair is in New Orleans today.
Thanks so much, guys, once again, for being here.
NELDA BLAIR, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Thank you.
COLLINS: Let's go ahead and start with the Schiavo case. A lot of people very upset about this. There's just no good side to it. But we do need to talk about the latest news and that is that the husband, Michael Schiavo, will return to court on Monday. He's going to fight the governor's actions. Governor Jeb Bush signing an order that led to putting that feeding tube back into Terry Schiavo to keep her alive.
Did the governor unjustly intervene?
Lida?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Absolutely. This is a case where he's being joined by the ACLU. And the reason we're intervening in this one is because the judicial branch in this case took the time and made a very deliberate decision after considering all the factors, years and years and years of litigation, years and years of appeals. And now the governor has decided to completely contravene what the judiciary is doing and basically act in an unconstitutional manner, kind of resembling more the actions of a dictator who decided he didn't like what the courts did. And he had the legislature pass a law that was basically designed to deal with one incident.
I think the lesson to take from this is if you don't like what a court does, all you have to do is knock on the governor's door and he will undo it for you. That is a bad, bad lesson in this very tragic case. BLAIR: I really, I really, I think...
COLLINS: Nelda, why don't you jump in here. I'm sure that you don't agree. Did the governor do anything illegal?
BLAIR: Well, that's just it. He did make -- you may disagree with what he did, you may disagree morally with what he did, but the point is legally the governor had the right to do this. And you know what? There are many states that pass legislation for one instance only. That's not really unusual.
What we have in our system is a checks and balance system, legislative, executive -- he's the governor -- and judicial. And one checks the other. And his will be checked, as well as he checked theirs.
So what happens is he may pass this, the courts may find it unconstitutional, but there's a check and a balance for every one. He's absolutely within his rights.
COLLINS: And let me also just ask this question. Obviously when you are a governor, you make a lot of decisions based on your politics. There were several people coming to this man, including the parents of Terry Schiavo, coming to Jeb Bush to ask him to intervene. Looking at what the Republican Party stands for and being that he is a Republican governor, what -- is this that unusual, that he would have taken this action?
Lida?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Yes, it is unusual because, you know, this isn't about the politics or his politics. It's about the creation of what is called an ex-post facto law. And what that terms means is the creation of a law that makes an action, constitutional or unconstitutional, legal or illegal, in a retroactive manner. So, for example, the governor could very well pass a law that says in the future anybody who is in this position has to have either a living will or their feeding tube cannot be removed, in the future. But he cannot do this retroactively. And that's what this is really about.
BLAIR: No, that's not what it's about. What it's about is the judicial branch having given one opinion and the governor having the power to exercise another, and that's what he did. Politics not being a dirty word, yes, he probably did use some of his own feelings to enter into whether -- decide whether or not he was going to make this decision. He's human. I would hope that he uses some of his own emotions.
But what he did is not pass a law that was retroactively enforced at all. What he did was overrule a law that the judiciary passed. And he may be overruled himself. That's the way the system works.
COLLINS: Let me just ask you, ladies, what do you think we're going to see here on Monday when Michael Schiavo returns to the courtroom to fight this decision?
Lida?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: I think what you'll see is a very quick court decision one way or the other. And I think this is an easy one. This law will be declared unconstitutional and the legislators knew it when they passed it. Many of them said oh, we know this is unconstitutional, but his a heart-wrenching case.
BLAIR: Yes, honestly I do agree with that. I think that the court will find it unconstitutional and, again, that's the way the system goes. So it may happen that way.
COLLINS: All right, let's go ahead and move on to our next topic now.
We're talking about this Philadelphia teacher who, about one week into the job or so, very early on, he has sent a group of students for being unruly to the principal's office. We've all heard about this before. But the principal sent them right back, saying that we are in the business of trying to keep students in the classroom, not in the business of kicking them out. That was actually, I should correct myself, the district's general counsel that said that.
This thing is going into the court system now.
Is there a case, Nelda?
BLAIR: I do not think there's a case because this man has not gone through the system like he's supposed to. He's not gone through the grievance procedures. You know, this is another situation where, I would like to say, quit whining and do your job. This man's been on the job for two and a half days. He is showing a great, great opportunity to these children. What a leader he is. He showed them that if you don't like your job, don't do it. If you don't like your job description, change it. And if you're not having a good time there, leave in the middle of the day, which is what he did.
What a great example. I'm glad he's out of the classroom.
COLLINS: Lida, your thoughts on this? What are the students' rights here?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: You know, this is very funny. Nelda, I'm glad you're in New Orleans saying this, because you're absolutely right. And salient fact number one in this case is that this guy does not have a teaching degree, but he does have a law degree.
COLLINS: A law degree, yes.
BLAIR: Right.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: So, you know, what a surprise. You know, the issue is, is somebody doesn't understand the fact that as a teacher, he's supposed to teach the good, the bad and the ugly. That's just how it goes. And the students do have rights here. If he's saying that these students are threatening him or attacking him or doing these things, he needs to be able to put that down on paper and allege facts that this is, in fact, happening, before he kicks them out of the classroom.
And that's what the district was saying here, saying you didn't put any of this on paper. You're now saying it. You walked off the job. You basically didn't return in the middle of the day because you didn't get your way. What kind of example is that?
BLAIR: Right.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: And the students do have rights and should have been -- it should have been proven that these students were doing something wrong before he kicked them out.
COLLINS: OK...
BLAIR: Well, you know, it's not so...
COLLINS: I'm...
BLAIR: It's not really so much whether they have the rights. What it is is kids will respond to discipline, the level of discipline they're given. This guy was giving them no discipline.
COLLINS: OK...
BLAIR: It's not surprising that they responded in this way.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: And you're getting...
COLLINS: Ladies, I'm so sorry, we're going to have to call it quits on that one.
And, quickly, I need to point out before we go that this district was trying to put into place a new policy on tougher codes of discipline because of a longstanding problem in the district.
BLAIR: Right.
COLLINS: So maybe he was looking at that a little bit. Not sure.
Thank you so much for your thoughts there.
BLAIR: Thank you.
COLLINS: Lida Rodriguez-Taseff and Nelda Luce Blair.
Thanks so much, ladies.
And a programming note now, quickly. Be sure to tune into "Larry King Live" Monday his guest will be Michael Schiavo, the man at the center of that controversy in Florida. He will talk about his wife, the decision by Governor Bush and the lawsuit. That's coming up 9:00 Eastern on Monday night.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 25, 2003 - 08:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to our Legal Briefs. First, the gut wrenching life or death battle over the Florida woman, Terry Schiavo, who is in a coma like state. Also, a rookie Philadelphia teacher just one week into the job is taking his school to court over unruly students.
Our legal eagles, civil rights attorney Lida Rodriguez-Taseff joining us from our Miami bureau.
Good morning to you, Lida.
LIDA RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Good morning.
COLLINS: And former Texas prosecutor Nelda Liz Blair is in New Orleans today.
Thanks so much, guys, once again, for being here.
NELDA BLAIR, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Thank you.
COLLINS: Let's go ahead and start with the Schiavo case. A lot of people very upset about this. There's just no good side to it. But we do need to talk about the latest news and that is that the husband, Michael Schiavo, will return to court on Monday. He's going to fight the governor's actions. Governor Jeb Bush signing an order that led to putting that feeding tube back into Terry Schiavo to keep her alive.
Did the governor unjustly intervene?
Lida?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Absolutely. This is a case where he's being joined by the ACLU. And the reason we're intervening in this one is because the judicial branch in this case took the time and made a very deliberate decision after considering all the factors, years and years and years of litigation, years and years of appeals. And now the governor has decided to completely contravene what the judiciary is doing and basically act in an unconstitutional manner, kind of resembling more the actions of a dictator who decided he didn't like what the courts did. And he had the legislature pass a law that was basically designed to deal with one incident.
I think the lesson to take from this is if you don't like what a court does, all you have to do is knock on the governor's door and he will undo it for you. That is a bad, bad lesson in this very tragic case. BLAIR: I really, I really, I think...
COLLINS: Nelda, why don't you jump in here. I'm sure that you don't agree. Did the governor do anything illegal?
BLAIR: Well, that's just it. He did make -- you may disagree with what he did, you may disagree morally with what he did, but the point is legally the governor had the right to do this. And you know what? There are many states that pass legislation for one instance only. That's not really unusual.
What we have in our system is a checks and balance system, legislative, executive -- he's the governor -- and judicial. And one checks the other. And his will be checked, as well as he checked theirs.
So what happens is he may pass this, the courts may find it unconstitutional, but there's a check and a balance for every one. He's absolutely within his rights.
COLLINS: And let me also just ask this question. Obviously when you are a governor, you make a lot of decisions based on your politics. There were several people coming to this man, including the parents of Terry Schiavo, coming to Jeb Bush to ask him to intervene. Looking at what the Republican Party stands for and being that he is a Republican governor, what -- is this that unusual, that he would have taken this action?
Lida?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Yes, it is unusual because, you know, this isn't about the politics or his politics. It's about the creation of what is called an ex-post facto law. And what that terms means is the creation of a law that makes an action, constitutional or unconstitutional, legal or illegal, in a retroactive manner. So, for example, the governor could very well pass a law that says in the future anybody who is in this position has to have either a living will or their feeding tube cannot be removed, in the future. But he cannot do this retroactively. And that's what this is really about.
BLAIR: No, that's not what it's about. What it's about is the judicial branch having given one opinion and the governor having the power to exercise another, and that's what he did. Politics not being a dirty word, yes, he probably did use some of his own feelings to enter into whether -- decide whether or not he was going to make this decision. He's human. I would hope that he uses some of his own emotions.
But what he did is not pass a law that was retroactively enforced at all. What he did was overrule a law that the judiciary passed. And he may be overruled himself. That's the way the system works.
COLLINS: Let me just ask you, ladies, what do you think we're going to see here on Monday when Michael Schiavo returns to the courtroom to fight this decision?
Lida?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: I think what you'll see is a very quick court decision one way or the other. And I think this is an easy one. This law will be declared unconstitutional and the legislators knew it when they passed it. Many of them said oh, we know this is unconstitutional, but his a heart-wrenching case.
BLAIR: Yes, honestly I do agree with that. I think that the court will find it unconstitutional and, again, that's the way the system goes. So it may happen that way.
COLLINS: All right, let's go ahead and move on to our next topic now.
We're talking about this Philadelphia teacher who, about one week into the job or so, very early on, he has sent a group of students for being unruly to the principal's office. We've all heard about this before. But the principal sent them right back, saying that we are in the business of trying to keep students in the classroom, not in the business of kicking them out. That was actually, I should correct myself, the district's general counsel that said that.
This thing is going into the court system now.
Is there a case, Nelda?
BLAIR: I do not think there's a case because this man has not gone through the system like he's supposed to. He's not gone through the grievance procedures. You know, this is another situation where, I would like to say, quit whining and do your job. This man's been on the job for two and a half days. He is showing a great, great opportunity to these children. What a leader he is. He showed them that if you don't like your job, don't do it. If you don't like your job description, change it. And if you're not having a good time there, leave in the middle of the day, which is what he did.
What a great example. I'm glad he's out of the classroom.
COLLINS: Lida, your thoughts on this? What are the students' rights here?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: You know, this is very funny. Nelda, I'm glad you're in New Orleans saying this, because you're absolutely right. And salient fact number one in this case is that this guy does not have a teaching degree, but he does have a law degree.
COLLINS: A law degree, yes.
BLAIR: Right.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: So, you know, what a surprise. You know, the issue is, is somebody doesn't understand the fact that as a teacher, he's supposed to teach the good, the bad and the ugly. That's just how it goes. And the students do have rights here. If he's saying that these students are threatening him or attacking him or doing these things, he needs to be able to put that down on paper and allege facts that this is, in fact, happening, before he kicks them out of the classroom.
And that's what the district was saying here, saying you didn't put any of this on paper. You're now saying it. You walked off the job. You basically didn't return in the middle of the day because you didn't get your way. What kind of example is that?
BLAIR: Right.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: And the students do have rights and should have been -- it should have been proven that these students were doing something wrong before he kicked them out.
COLLINS: OK...
BLAIR: Well, you know, it's not so...
COLLINS: I'm...
BLAIR: It's not really so much whether they have the rights. What it is is kids will respond to discipline, the level of discipline they're given. This guy was giving them no discipline.
COLLINS: OK...
BLAIR: It's not surprising that they responded in this way.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: And you're getting...
COLLINS: Ladies, I'm so sorry, we're going to have to call it quits on that one.
And, quickly, I need to point out before we go that this district was trying to put into place a new policy on tougher codes of discipline because of a longstanding problem in the district.
BLAIR: Right.
COLLINS: So maybe he was looking at that a little bit. Not sure.
Thank you so much for your thoughts there.
BLAIR: Thank you.
COLLINS: Lida Rodriguez-Taseff and Nelda Luce Blair.
Thanks so much, ladies.
And a programming note now, quickly. Be sure to tune into "Larry King Live" Monday his guest will be Michael Schiavo, the man at the center of that controversy in Florida. He will talk about his wife, the decision by Governor Bush and the lawsuit. That's coming up 9:00 Eastern on Monday night.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
