ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A federal appeals court rejected a new petition Wednesday by the parents of Terry Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman whose feeding tube was removed March 18.
The 9-2 decision by the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta dashed one of the last remaining hopes for Bob and Mary Schindler, who are desperately trying to prolong their daughter's life.
A 12th judge did not vote because of illness.
Doctors expect Schiavo to die within days.
In a concurring opinion, Judge Stanley Birch said Congress "chose to overstep constitutional boundaries" by passing a law to force the case into federal courts.
Judges Gerald Tjoflat and Charles Wilson dissented, with Tjoflat writing that the Schindlers deserved a hearing on the merits of their argument.
Randall Terry, an activist against abortion rights who is acting as a spokesman for the Schindlers, said the parents plan to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has refused to hear the case three times since late 2004.
In the petition filed late Tuesday night, the Schindlers' lawyer, David Gibbs, argued that federal judges who rejected previous efforts to have Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted violated a Supreme Court precedent that requires them to consider the full record of the case, not just procedural history from the state court.
Gibbs argued the federal judges could not have considered the full record in its review of the case because the full record had not been filed with the federal courts.
George Felos, attorney for Schiavo's husband, Michael, called the filing "some sort of last-minute desperation move, and we believe the federal courts have spoken on this already."
Jesse Jackson, Jeb Bush meet
Earlier Wednesday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson met in Tallahassee with Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and state Senate President Tom Lee to discuss the Schiavo case.
Last week, the Florida House passed a bill meant to keep Schiavo alive on a 78-37 vote. The measure would have prevented doctors from removing a feeding tube from patients who had not expressed their wishes in writing.
The measure failed in the Senate 21-18.
Lee said there was no sign that any of the 21 senators who voted against that bill were willing to reconsider.
"It seems at every turn that these legal doors are being closed," Jackson told reporters after returning to Pinellas Park, where Schiavo lay in a hospice.
The civil rights leader visited the day earlier but was not permitted to see her. He said the Schindlers had invited him.
First lady Laura Bush has also weighed in on the debate during her trip to Afghanistan, saying, "It's a life issue."
"The federal government has to be involved," Mrs. Bush said. "It really does require the government to be involved."
Father: Schiavo looks 'darn good'
Bob Schindler visited his daughter at the hospice Wednesday, telling reporters she looked "darn good," despite nearly two weeks without her feeding tube.
"I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw and encouraged that she's still fighting," Schindler said. "We're still going to fight for her to save her, and it's not too late."
His wife also went to the hospice, but for the third consecutive day did not visit their daughter.
She did make an impassioned plea to her daughter's husband Tuesday, calling on him to "give my child back to me."
"Michael and Jodi, you have your own children. Please, please give my child back to me," she begged.
Schindler was addressing Schiavo and the woman he has been living with since the late 1990s -- Jodi Centonze -- with whom he has two children.
Police stepped up security around the hospice Wednesday afternoon. In response to multiple threats, officers inspected incoming cars and required drivers to open their trunks, said Capt. Stanfield Forseth, a Pinellas Park police spokesman. He disclosed no specifics.
Numerous protesters have surrounded the hospice, demanding that some authority take action to save her life. Nearly 50 have been arrested in attempts to enter the facility.
Long legal fight
The legal fight between Michael Schiavo and his wife's parents has lasted more than a decade.
Schiavo maintains his wife would not want to be kept alive in her condition, which courts have ruled is a persistent vegetative state.
The Schindlers dispute that diagnosis and claim their daughter could improve with intense therapy.
Schiavo collapsed in her home in 1990, suffering from heart failure that led to severe brain damage because of lack of oxygen.
Her husband has said she suffered from bulimia, an eating disorder, that resulted in a potassium deficiency that triggered the heart failure. | 
