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Judge Lambert Denies
Obama Administration Request to Stay Stem Cell Ruling
By Dave Andrusko U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth has a reputation as a no-nonsense, cut-to-the-chase judge. So in denying the Obama administration's request that he lift his August 23 preliminary injunction that prevent the Obama administration from continuing to fund research that requires the destruction of human embryos, it was not surprising that he wrote, "Defendants are incorrect about much of their 'parade of horribles' that will supposedly result from this Court's preliminary injunction."
"In this Court's view, a stay would flout the will of Congress, as this Court understands what Congress has enacted in the Dickey-Wicker Amendment," Lamberth wrote. "Congress remains perfectly free to amend or revise the statute. This Court is not free to do so." The amendment Lambert referenced bans federal funding of "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death." In an effort to create support for action in Congress to overturn the 1996 Amendment, the Justice Department argued in court papers filed last week that the stay could cause "irrevocable harm to the millions of extremely sick or injured people who stand to benefit ... as well as to the defendants, the scientific community and the taxpayers who have already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on such research through public funding of projects which will now be forced to shut down and, in many cases, scrapped altogether." Lambert was buying none of that. Referring to Dr. Sherley and Dr. Deisher, who sued to stop the research, Lambert wrote that the plaintiffs "agree that this court's order does not even address the [President George W.] Bush administration guidelines, or whether NIH could return to those guidelines." He added, "The prior guidelines, of course, allowed research only on existing stem cell lines, foreclosing additional destruction of embryos. Plaintiffs also agree that projects previously awarded and funded are not affected by this court's order." Lambert's final paragraph in his three-page paragraph was especially telling. "Congress has mandated that the public interest is served by preventing taxpayer funding of research that entails the destruction of human embryos," he wrote. "It is well-established that '[i]t is in the public interest for courts to carry out the will of Congress and for an agency to implement properly the statute it administers.'" Please send your comments on Today's News & Views and National Right to Life News Today to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha. |
As
this edition of TN&V is being written, the Obama administration
has not said it will appeal Judge Lamberth's September 7
decision, although such a move is widely expected.