Government lawyers said on Wednesday they would not appeal a decision by a Michigan federal judge who dismissed charges involving FGM as unconstitutional, ruling it was a state issue.
Congress in 1996 outlawed FGM, a ritual that involves partial or total removal of external genitalia, which the World Health Organization has called “a grave violation of the human rights of girls and women.”
The CDC says half a million girls in the US have had it or are at risk of having it.
The decision by the U.S. government “is sending a damaging message to law enforcement, the courts and to the courageous survivors who are breaking the silence around FGM,” said Shelby Quast, an office director for Equality Now, an international human rights organization, in a statement.
About half of the nation’s 50 states have laws outlawing the practice. Michigan law forbids the practice, but its law took effect after the case in question.
In the Michigan case, a federal judge late last year dismissed FGM charges against a doctor and others from the local Indian Dawoodi Bohra community involved in the mutilation of nine young girls in Detroit.
The judge said the feds hadn’t made the case that they had the authority to regulate FGM.
There is a federal law banning FGM. It is the Department of Justice’s responsibility to defend it.
They’re choosing instead to abandon the fight for the health and human rights of women and girls around the world.
If you agree that’s outrageous, let them know: 202-353-1555 https://t.co/ucx74UIFrC
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 11, 2019
Comments
6 responses to “Abandoning the girls”
Can’t that dimwit of a judge be over-ruled by the full bench of the US Supreme Court?
Omar,
Would you trust this Supreme Court to do the right thing?
Interesting. I would have thought that the racists of this administration would have loved taking a stance against what is largely a muslim practice. I guess their disdain for women is their stronger motivator.
And it’s not just a ‘Muslim’ practice–it’s one primarily performed by recent immigrants. So Trump could actually be trying to use this to justify targeting communities of color for additional policing. He really does hate women more than anything else….
Funny how ‘states rights’ always seems to be invoked to further marginalize the already marginalized.
Seems like a pretty clear battery to me.