WASHINGTON – Backed by the U.S. Department of Justice, the parents of a brain-damaged Florida woman took her case to a federal appellate court in Atlanta yesterday after a district court judge in Tampa refused to order her feeding tube reinserted.

Theresa Schiavo, 41, has been without nutrition or water since a state judge ordered her feeding tube removed on Friday. Congress passed emergency legislation over the weekend to allow her family to appeal the case in federal court.

Early yesterday morning, U.S. District Judge James Whittemore declined to order the tube reinserted on the grounds that Mrs. Schiavo’s parents had not shown a “substantial likelihood of success on the merits” if granted a new trial.

“This court concludes that Theresa Schiavo’s life and liberty interests were adequately protected by the extensive process provided in the state courts,” the judge wrote.

Lawyers for the Justice Department and her parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to issue an injunction requiring the tube to be reinserted, or to direct a district court to order an injunction “to prevent Theresa Schiavo’s death” before the court deals with the appeal.

“Congress intended that the district court take a complete and fresh look at federal constitutional and statutory claims before Theresa Schiavo is allowed to die,” wrote the assistant attorney general, Peter Keisler.

The Schindlers’ lawyer, David Gibbs, asked the appellate court to restore the tube “for the very stark and simple reason that Terri may die at any time. If that happens, the appeal will become moot.”

Mrs. Schiavo suffered a severe brain injury more than 15 years ago when her heart stopped due to a potassium imbalance caused by bulimia, an eating disorder. Her husband, Michel Schiavo, said his wife, who did not leave a living will, had told him she would not have wished to have been kept alive under such circumstances. Her parents disagreed and questioned Mr. Schiavo’s motives.

The Schindlers alleged in their federal claim that state courts had made five violations of Mrs. Schiavo’s constitutional rights. But in a 13-page ruling yesterday, Judge Whittemore rejected them all.

The Senate majority leader, William Frist of Tennessee, who had championed the cause of Mrs. Schiavo’s parents in the Senate, said, “It is a sad day for all Americans who value the sanctity of life. I’m hopeful for a different result on appeal.”

The Vatican yesterday also criticized Judge Whittemore’s decision in a front-page editorial in the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.”She has no possibility of being ‘restored’ to a ‘normal’ life. Therefore Terri Schiavo must die,” the editorial began. “This is …the absurd and terrifying reason” for the judge’s decision, the editorial stated, according to the Associated Press. The newspaper compared her treatment to the death penalty, which the Holy See opposes.

Other groups applauded the ruling.

“Part of respecting the worth and dignity of life is respecting individual choice. A responsible society must honor Terri Schiavo’s wishes,” said the executive director of the American Humanist Association, Tony Hileman.

If the appellate court rejects their claim, the Schindlers may appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has twice declined to intervene in the case.

Activist groups predicted a push to pass a law banning spouses from having a say over their incapacitated partners’ end-of-life decisions if they carried on “adulterous” relationships.

The Schindlers and some lawmakers have accused Mr. Schiavo of “conflict of interest” in the case because in the 15 years since his wife’s collapse, he has fathered two children with his live-in girlfriend.

The chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, the Rev. Louis Sheldon, said he was unaware of any additional emergency legislation that Congress could pass, but he predicted that “down the road, there will be a lot of legislation.”

“This case has released and energized hundreds of thousands of people who would never have been activists on the culture-of-life issue – but all of a sudden, they are realizing it could be them or someone they love in that hospital bed,” he added.

The governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, said he wants the state to adopt such a law.

“If someone is living with their loved one and has two children and their spouse is in this situation, they have a serious conflict of interest,” Mr. Bush said, according to the Ledger newspaper of Lakeland, Fla.

Mr. Schiavo responded by lashing out at politicians.

“Come down, President Bush,” Mr. Schiavo said in a telephone interview reported in the St. Petersburg Times. “Come talk to me. Meet my wife. Talk to my wife and see if you get an answer. Ask her to lift her arm, to shake your hand. She won’t do it.” She won’t, Mr. Schiavo said, because she can’t.

Instead of worrying about his wife, Congress should worry about people without health insurance or children without homes, Mr. Schiavo said.

He reserved particular scorn for the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, who is leading a charge to extend Mrs. Schiavo’s life, calling him a “little slithering snake” pandering for votes.

Mr. Schiavo said he was going to stay at his wife’s side through the entire ordeal and said he wouldn’t back down in his fight to have her wishes carried out, the Times reported.

“Terri died 15 years ago,” Mr. Schiavo said, referring to the collapse and cardiac arrest that doctors say virtually destroyed her brain. “It’s time for her to be with the Lord like she wanted to be.”

Judge Whittemore said the legal process that sided with Mr. Schiavo’s account of his wife’s wishes had been fair and more than adequate.

In their complaint to the federal court, the Schindlers alleged that Mrs. Schiavo’s constitutional right to a fair and impartial trial had been violated because Pinellas Country Judge George Greer, who held the trial, was not impartial and had become “an advocate for Terri’s death.” Judge Whittemore said those contentions were “without merit.”

“The judge was not transformed into an advocate merely because his rulings are unfavorable to the litigant,” he wrote.

The family also alleged that Mrs. Schiavo’s constitutional right to due process was violated because the judge failed to appoint an appropriate guardian and an independent attorney to represent her, and because the trial judge failed to meet her personally to assess her condition.

Judge Whittemore wrote that there is no constitutional requirement that a state trial judge personally assess a patient. He also found that an independent guardian had reviewed her case and testified as a witness in her trial.

“Theresa Schiavo’s case has been exhaustively litigated, including an extensive trial, followed by another ‘extensive hearing at which many highly qualified physicians testified’ to reconfirm that no meaningful treatment was available,” Judge Whittemore wrote, adding there had also been six appeals.

“As the Florida Second District Court of Appeal stated, ‘few, if any, similar cases have ever been afforded this heightened level of process,'” he wrote.

The judge, a Clinton appointee, also rejected the Schindlers’ argument that Mrs. Schiavo’s right to equal protection had been violated. They argued that the removal of the feeding tube would violate her right to exercise her Roman Catholic religion, contrary to a law that protects the religious rights of people held in the custody of government institutions.

Judge Whittemore explained that the law preventing the state from imposing burdens on religious exercise did not apply to her husband, or the hospice where she has been held.

“Even under these difficult and time strained circumstances,” Judge Whittemore wrote, “and notwithstanding Congress’ expressed interest in the welfare of Theresa Schiavo, this court is constrained to apply the law to the issues before it.”