A senior US judge appointed by George W Bush launched a scathing attack on President over the Terri Schiavo case, as another round of legal appeals by the brain-damaged woman's parents was rejected yesterday.

A federal appeals court and the Supreme Court both refused to intervene on behalf of Bob and Mary Schindler, who want their daughter kept alive against the wishes of her husband, Michael Schiavo, who claims that she would have wanted to die.

But one of the federal judges hearing the case rebuked Mr Bush and Congress for acting "in a manner demonstrably at odds with our founding fathers" when they intervened in the politically-charged case this month.

Congress and the President passed an emergency law to enable the federal courts to reconsider the case.

Justice Stanley Birch of the 11th Circuit court in Atlanta said that the law was unconstitutional because it pushed the federal courts to consider a case that had long been decided by state courts.

"In resolving the Schiavo controversy it is my judgment that, despite sincerity and altruistic motivation, the legislative and executive branches of our government have acted in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers' blueprint for the governance of a free people -- our Constitution," he wrote in an opinion.

Judge Birch also wrote in his scathing assault that the law was an intrusion into the judicial branch of power. "We must conscientiously guard the independence of our judiciary and safeguard the Constitution, even in the face of the unfathomable human tragedy that has befallen Mrs Schiavo and her family."

The intervention by Congress was also deeply unpopular among Americans, according to opinion polls.

State courts have consistently sided with Mr Schiavo in ruling that a cardiac arrest, which deprived his wife's brain of oxygen in 1990, left her in a persistent vegetative state and that she would not want to live on like that.

Mrs Schiavo's feeding tube was disconnected under a state court order on March 18. Doctors said then that the 41-year-old woman would likely live up to two weeks without it.

Mr Schiavo's lawyer, George Felos, arrived at the Florida hospice yesterday, leading to speculation that Mrs Schiavo's death might be near.

But Mr Schindler told reporters that his daughter still looked good, bringing four relatives and friends who had seen her that morning to the microphones to back him up.

"I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw and encouraged," Mr Schindler said of his morning visit with Mrs Schiavo. "She's still fighting, and we are still fighting for her."

The Schindlers, who believe their daughter is responsive and could improve, have been backed by the Christian Right, anti-abortion campaigners and disabled rights activists, and by mainly Republican politicians who saw their cause as a rallying point for advocates of "the culture of life."

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