Going inside their heads I found this (Judge Wilson wrote the 11th Circuit dissent in the Schiavo case):
As Judge Wilson explained, the authority of a court to command that an action (such as the reinsertion of Terri's feeding tube) be taken under the All Writs Act is significantly different in its purpose from an order having the same effect but issued as a preliminary injunction. In the latter case, the injunction is for the benefit of the litigant, who is thus called on to satisfy the test that requires a demonstration of probable success on the merits. To the contrary, the All Writs Act is for the protection and integrity of proceedings before the public's courts. It does not allow courts to create jurisdiction, but it does empower them to preserve the jurisdiction they already have by staying the hand of outsiders whose actions could prevent the court from considering issues and bringing litigation to a natural, rather than a forced, conclusion.
More on the flip, including Gitmo:
As best as I can parse this, if the parents wish to assert they have "discovered" a previously unrecognized right to life within the interstices of the Constitution - - hey, if the
Roe-v-Wade court found a new right to privacy why not find a right with a
Schiavo court - - they must keep Terri alive until full
de novo litigation.
Here is the Gitmo angle:
The last time the public encountered [the All Writs Act] was only five months ago, in connection with the al Qaeda terrorists captured on the battlefield, trying to kill American troops, and being held in Guantanamo Bay as unlawful enemy combatants. Notwithstanding that its decision effectively permitted our enemies to use our courts as a weapon in their war against us, the Supreme Court was insistent that those terrorists get their day in federal court, through extraordinary, unprecedented habeas corpus proceedings. The only problem: the habeas corpus statutes do not provide detainees with a right to counsel -- the vast majority of American citizens who file habeas petitions must go it alone.No problem, found U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. On October 20, 2004, she determined that to effectuate their vitally important claims, and make sure they had maximum persuasive force, she would use the All Writs Act as authority to give our terrorist enemies the assistance of counsel...at the expense of the American taxpayer.
Wheels within wheels within wheels. None of this is an accident, except perhaps that poor woman's condition.