District of Florida in Tampa, FL on March 21. The claims were chiefly that the rulings of the state court judges were biased or unfair and that removal of the feeding tube constituted a risk that Schiavo, as a Roman Catholic, would face extended time in purgatory. A two-hour hearing on the injunction was held on March 21 before Judge James D. Whittemore. Early on March 22, Judge Whittemore refused to order the feeding tube reinserted. In his opinion, he applied the mandatory four-prong test set out by the 11th Circuit for preliminary injunctions, and concluded that the Schindlers were "exceedingly unlikely to prevail on the merits of the case," one of the test's four prongs. U.S. Court of Appeals The judgment was appealed. In the early morning of March 23, 2005, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta denied the request to reinsert the feeding tube. The three-judge panel ruled 2-1. The majority opinion agreed with the district court that the Schindlers had failed to prove one of the four required prongs: that they had "failed to demonstrate a substantial case on the merits of any of their claims." In affirming the district court's analysis, the panel pointed out that Congress had considered the issue of expressly directing the district court to order the reinsertion of the feeding tube pending litigation on the merits, and had refrained from including such a directive. Thus, Congress had left the 11th Circuit's existing procedural law in place, and the district judge had applied the circuit's existing test correctly. Congress did have the power to override the 11th Circuit's mandatory four-prong test pursuant to the Rules Enabling Act, but chose not to do so. Later that day, the 11th Circuit Court refused to rehear the case as a whole (en banc). Two of the twelve judges wrote dissenting opinions, but the actual vote is not public record. On March 30, the Court agreed to consider a petition by the Schindlers parents to have a new hearing to decide whether the feeding tube should be reinserted. Later that day, the court denied the petition. Judge Stanley F. Birch Jr., a 1990 George H. W. Bush appointee, in a concurring opinion, rebuked President Bush and Congress: "In resolving the Schiavo controversy, it is my judgment that, despite sincere and altruistic motivation, the legislative and executive branches of our government have acted in a manner