The rulings Thursday by the nation's highest court and by the trial judge who first handled the case seven years ago added to a long string of legal defeats for the parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, despite aggressive efforts by Congress, the White House and, most recently, the governor of Florida to force the resumption of life support.

''The courts have consistently found that she did not want to be kept alive artificially,'' said George Felos, the lawyer for Schiavo's husband, Michael, who successfully petitioned to disconnect the feeding tube that had sustained his severely brain-damaged wife.

Yet by evening the Schindlers were trying another avenue, sending their lawyer back to Judge James Whittemore of U.S. District Court in Tampa with an amended lawsuit charging that the removal of the feeding tube had been a violation of Schiavo's constitutional right to life.

A spokeswoman for Jeb Bush said he was also looking for options, after failing to persuade Judge George Greer of Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court to allow him to intervene.

''Absent a kidnapping, Terri Schiavo is going to remain at the hospice,'' Felos said.

At Woodside Hospice, where Schiavo has gone seven days without nutrition or hydration, the number of protesters and signs attacking Michael Schiavo and Greer grew as the humid day progressed.

Jeb Bush's motion to intervene, which included new accusations that Schiavo had been abused and had received a misdiagnosis, could have led to his administration's taking custody of her. But Greer denied the motion in the early afternoon.

Before the action moved back to Florida, the day began with the Supreme Court's prompt rejection of an emergency request the Schindlers filed with Justice Anthony Kennedy late Wednesday night for an order to reinstate the feeding tube.

The justices issued a one-sentence order shortly after 10 a.m., but it was not the one the Schindlers were seeking. ''The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice Kennedy and by him referred to the court is denied,'' it said.

In a 2000 trial at Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court, Greer accepted Michael Schiavo's testimony that his wife had told him several times she would not want life-prolonging measures.

She suffered extensive brain damage after her heart stopped one night in 1990 because of an undiagnosed potassium deficiency. Michael Schiavo originally sought help for his wife, but after eight years he asked the state court's permission to remove her feeding tube and let her die.