Oh man you send me this, this close to closeout time, lol. Let’s see the evil that awaits, please don’t be the US one tho _____
In a major blow to the federal
government, a judge in Detroit has declared America’s female genital
mutilation law unconstitutional, thereby dismissing the key charges
against two Michigan doctors and six others accused of subjecting at
least nine minor girls to the cutting procedure in the nation’s first
FGM case.
The historic case
involves minor girls from Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota, including
some who cried, screamed and bled during the procedure and one who was
given Valium ground in liquid Tylenol to keep her calm, court records
show.
The judge’s ruling also dismissed charges
against three mothers, including two Minnesota women whom prosecutors
said tricked their 7 -year-old daughters into thinking they were coming
to metro Detroit for a girls’ weekend, but instead had their genitals
cut at a Livonia clinic as part of a religious procedure.
U.S.
District Judge Bernard Friedman concluded that “as despicable as this
practice may be,” Congress did not have the authority to pass the
22-year-old federal law that criminalizes female genital mutilation, and
that FGM is for the states to regulate. FGM is banned worldwide and has
been outlawed in more than 30 countries, though the U.S. statute had
never been tested before this case.
“As
laudable as the prohibition of a particular type of abuse of girls may
be … federalism concerns deprive Congress of the power to enact this
statute,” Friedman wrote in his 28-page opinion, noting: “Congress
overstepped its bounds by legislating to prohibit FGM … FGM is a
‘local criminal activity’ which, in keeping with long-standing tradition
and our federal system of government, is for the states to regulate,
not Congress.”
Currently,
27 states have laws that criminalize female genital mutilation,
including Michigan, whose FGM law is stiffer than the federal statute,
punishable by up to 15 years in prison, compared with five under federal
law. Michigan’s FGM law was passed last year in the wake of the
historic case and applies to both doctors who conduct the procedure, and
parents who transport a child to have it done. The defendants in this
case can’t be retroactively charged under the new law.
Gina
Balaya, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorneys Office, said the government
is reviewing the judge’s opinion and will make a determination whether
or not to appeal at some point in the future.
Friedman’s
ruling stems from a request by Dr. Jumana Nagarwala and her
codefendants to dismiss the genital mutilation charges, claiming the law
they are being prosecuted under is unconstitutional.
A victory for the defendants
The
defendants are all members of a small Indian Muslim sect known as the
Dawoodi Bohra, which has a mosque in Farmington Hills. The sect
practices female circumcision and believes it is a religious rite of
passage that involves only a minor “nick.”
The
defendants have argued that “Congress lacked authority to enact" the
genital mutilation statute, “thus the female genital mutilation charges
must be dismissed.” They also argue that they didn’t actually practice
FGM, but rather performed a benign procedure involving no cutting.
“Oh
my God, we won!,” declared Shannon Smith, Nagarwala’s lawyer, who
expects the government to appeal. “But we are confident we will win even
if appealed.”
Smith has maintained all along that her client did not engage in FGM.
“Dr.
Nagarwala is just a wonderful human being. She was always known as a
doctor with an excellent reputation,” Smith said. “The whole community
was shocked when this happened. She’s always been known to be a stellar
doctor, mother, person.”
For FGM survivor and
social activist Mariya Taher, who heads a campaign out of Cambridge,
Massachusetts, to ban FGM worldwide, Friedman’s ruling was a punch to
the gut.
“Oh my God, this is crazy,” said Taher,
stressing she fears the ruling will put more young women in harm’s way.
“Unfortunately, this is going to embolden those who believe that this
must be continued … they’ll feel that this is permission, that it’s OK
to do this.”
Taher, who, at 7, was subjected to
the same type of religious cutting procedure that’s at issue in the
Michigan case, said she doesn’t expect laws alone to end FGM. But they
are needed, she stressed.
“This is a violation of
one person’s human rights. It’s a form of gender violence. … This is
cultural violence,” 35-year-old Taher said.
Yasmeen
Hassan, executive global director for Equality Now, an international
women’s rights organization, agreed, saying the ruling sends a
disturbing message to women and girls.
“It says you are not important,” Hassan said, calling the ruling a “federal blessing” for FGM.
“In
this day and age, for FGM to still occur — and a federal government
can’t regulate this with a human rights violation — is very bizarre,”
she said. “This is not what I expected. It’s so not what I expected.”
Hassan
added: “I don’t think it’s possible for the federal government not to
appeal this case. My feeling is that it will go all the way to the
Supreme Court.”
Friedman’s ruling also drew the ire of Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge.
“I’m angry that the federal judge dismissed this horrific case that
affected upwards of a hundred girls who were brutally victimized and
attacked against their will,“ Jones said in a statement, noting 23
states don’t have FGM laws.
“This is why it was so important for Michigan to act. We set a precedent
that female genital mutilation will not be tolerated here, and we did
so by passing a state law that comes with a 15-year felony punishment,”
Jones said. “I hope other states will follow suit.”
The
federal statute at issue states: “Whoever knowingly circumcises,
excises or infibulates the whole or any part of the labia majora or
labia minora or clitoris of another person” under the age of 18 shall be
fined or imprisoned for up to five years, or both.
Prosecutors
argue Nagarwala, the lead defendant, did exactly that when she cut the
genitals of two 7-year-old Minnesota girls who were tricked into the
procedure in 2017 by their mothers.
They said
Nagarwala did this with the help of Dr. Fakhuruddin Attar, who is
accused of letting Nagarwala use his Livonia clinic after hours to carry
out the procedures; and his wife, Farida Attar, who is accused of
assisting Nagarwala in the examination room during the procedures and
holding the girls’ hands.
Prosecutors allege that
Nagarwala may have subjected up to 100 girls to the procedure over a
12-year period, though they have cited nine victims in the case: two
7-year-old girls from Minnesota; four Michigan girls ages 8-12, and
three Illinois girls.
Law deemed unconstitutional
Nagarwala
has long maintained that she committed no crime and that she was
charged under a law that slid through Congress without proper vetting.
“The
law was never debated on the floor of either chamber of Congress nor
was there ever any legislative hearing addressing the justification or
need for the federal law. Instead, all that exists is the criminal
statute itself,” defense lawyers have argued in court documents,
claiming the driving force behind the legislation was one lawmaker’s
belief that the prohibited conduct was ‘repulsive and cruel.’ “
But
the Constitution demands more than that, the defense has argued,
claiming Congress could not have passed a female genital mutilation ban
under the Commerce clause because “notably, here, the activity being
regulated has absolutely no effect on interstate commerce.”
The judge agreed.
“There
is nothing commercial or economic about FGM,” Friedman writes. “As
despicable as this practice may be, it is essentially a criminal
assault. … FGM is not part of a larger market and it has no
demonstrated effect on interstate commerce. The commerce clause does not
permit Congress to regulate a crime of this nature.”
The
prosecution disagrees, arguing genital mutilation is an illegal,
secretive and dangerous health care service that involves interstate
commerce on a number of fronts: text messages are used to arrange the
procedure; parents drive their children across state lines to get the
procedure; and the doctor uses medical tools in state-licensed clinics
to perform the surgeries.
In defending the statute,
prosecutors also have noted that FGM is condemned worldwide – it’s
illegal in more than 30 countries. And they’ve cited the legislative
history of the law, along with U.S. Sen. Harry Reid’s comments in
pushing for a genital mutilation ban.
“I want
everyone within the sound of my voice to understand that what I am going
to talk about here today does not deal with religion and it does not
deal with sex. It deals with violation of a person’s human rights. It
deals with degradation of women and young girls. It deals with the most
inhumane thing a person can imagine,” Reid stated in 1994.
On
September 30, 1996, the female genital mutilation law was signed, with
Reid stressing: “There is no medical reason for this procedure. … It
is used as a method to keep girls chaste and to ensure their virginity
until marriage, and to ensure that after marriage they do not engage in
extramarital sex.”
Nagarwala, meanwhile, is still
facing a conspiracy charge and an obstruction count that could send her
to prison for 20 years, along with the Attars. If convicted of
conspiracy, Nagarwala faces up to 30 years in prison.
The case is set to go to trial in April 2019. _____
well fuck me, Sarsour should be proud of herself about now.
My hope now is that this makes it to the supreme court and it splashes over on to circumcision
Nunya, pops, bro, my eyes have gone to shit and I can’t read that much could I get a TL;DR?
Judge declares that cutting girls sensitive bits in their lady parts is protected and to say otherwise is unconstitutional.
We now wait for the supreme court to weigh in on if mutilating genitalia is protected by the first amendment.
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