Supreme Court appeal seeks to stem Obama admin.’s illegal research funding

WASHINGTON — Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys together with Samuel B. Casey of the Jubilee Campaign’s Law of Life Project and Tom Hungar of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, asked the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday to review an appellate court ruling that allows federal funding of embryonic stem cell research to continue.

“Americans should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate federal law--especially in economic times like these,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden. “Congress designed that law so that Americans don’t pay any more precious taxpayer dollars for needless research made irrelevant by adult stem cell and other research. The law is clear, and we hope the U.S. Supreme Court will see the need to uphold its clear intent.”

Hungar, together with Jubilee Campaign and Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys, represent research scientists opposed to the Obama administration policy that authorized the National Institutes of Health, a federal agency, to fund additional research projects that destroy human embryos. That policy violates a federal law known as the Dickey/Wicker Amendment, which specifically prohibits such funding.

The petition for certiorari filed with the Supreme Court in Sherley v. Sebelius charges that the appeals court was in error when it ruled that it was bound by the reasoning of its earlier split decision in the case. That decision reversed a temporary restraining order that the lower court had issued against the administration’s policy. The petition also argues that the National Institutes of Health violated federal law when it intentionally disregarded tens of thousands of citizen comments lodged against its proposed guidelines.

The petition states, “The D.C. Circuit in this case upheld Guidelines issued by the National Institutes of Health (‘NIH’) providing for federal funding of certain types of human stem-cell research. That decision contravenes this Court’s precedent and creates conflict and confusion among the circuits….”

Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly Alliance Defense Fund) is an alliance-building legal ministry that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.

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