Checkerboard judicial activism

George Bush is inaugurating a season of checkerboard judicial activism.
The same administration that has condamned the Supreme Court for the decision on the juvenile death penalty is now asking federal judges, with the ad hoc statute concerning Terry Schiavo, to overstep state courts in a case which is normally heard by them.
This is not promising from different perspectives. First, US federalism has easily been bypassed. Second, an individual law is threatening the rule of law. Third, Justices who will be appointed in the future will have to deal with a very incoherent framework of principles when it comes to their self-restraint.