Stem Cell Research Injunction Lifted
JALSA’s strong support of continued federal funding of stem cell research was acknowledged in a Forward article this month by Joy Resmovits.
JALSA is pleased that the DC Circuit Court will once again allow public funding on important stem cell research while the lawsuit continues. The following article from Law 360 (Newswire for business lawyers) describes the status of this case.
DC Circuit Court Lifts Injunction On Federal Stem Cell Funding
By Derek Hawkins
Law360, New York (September 28, 2010) — An appeals court has agreed to allow federal funding for embryonic stem cell research to continue pending its decision in a suit seeking to invalidate new federal policies on the science.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday lifted a preliminary injunction issued by a lower court in August that barred the funding.
The appeals court’s ruling dissolved an emergency stay on the injunction, replacing it with a permanent stay pending the outcome of the U.S. government’s appeal. The court also ordered that, pursuant to its own motion, it will expedite its consideration of the government’s appeal.
Judges Judith Rogers, Thomas Griffith and Brett Kavanaugh penned the per curiam decision.
The ruling reverses an order by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Aug. 23 prohibiting the funding and denying the government’s request to stay the preliminary injunction.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs — a pair of medical researchers joined by two Christian organizations — didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday, and a representative from the U.S. Department of Justice wasn’t immediately available to comment on the case.
Researchers James Sherley and Theresa Deisher filed the suit in August 2009, along with the Nightlight Christian Adoptions Agency and the Christian Medical Association, seeking to counteract President Barack Obama’s March 2009 executive order lifting the ban on public funding for stem cell research issued under former President George W. Bush.
By following Obama’s order and implementing new guidelines for stem cell research funding, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health violated congressional restrictions on such research that have been in place for more than a decade, the plaintiffs alleged.
They accused HHS and the NIH of failing to consider evidence showing stem cell research to be scientifically unsound and fiscally irresponsible, and claim the agencies disregarded volumes of public comments opposing the research.
