Oklahoma Supreme Court Strikes ‘Personhood’ Amendment
Bravo for the Oklahoma judges. Now, if they could the same for corporate "personhood".
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/05/01/oklahoma-supreme-court-strikes-personhood-amendment/
On Monday, the state’s highest court unanimously ruled that a proposed amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution, which would define a fertilized egg as a person, is unconstitutional, as it violates the 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which upheld the constitutional right to have an abortion, AP reports.
Supporters of the personhood amendment were trying to gather enough signatures to get the issue on the ballot in Oklahoma this fall, but opponents maintained that it would ban all abortions and interfere with a woman’s right to use certain kinds of contraception and medical procedures, like in vitro fertilization, AP noted.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a protest with the Oklahoma Supreme Court along with the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement that “the Oklahoma court has sent a strong message that attempts to pass laws that are so hostile to women’s rights and health will not prevail in a court of law.
Proponents of the initiative don’t plan to end the fight. “This represents judicial tyranny in Oklahoma,” said Dan Skerbitz with Personhood Oklahoma, a group which collected signatures for the petition and is backed by Personhood USA. “They based their decision upon a prior court who ruled similarly that the people of Oklahoma do not have a right to petition their government,” Skerbitz told NewsOn6.com. He added that the group plans to study the court’s decision before planning their next move.
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