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March 29
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WASHINGTON, DC. – The Obama Administration has urged the Supreme Court not to hear the appeal of the Ninth Circuit's 2012 decision striking down a California law extending the statute of limitations on Armenian Genocide-era life insurance claims, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

"President Obama, rather than filing a brief based on the merits of this case, chose instead - on the eve of Prime Minister Erdogan's visit to Washington, DC - to send Ankara a political gift by both deepening his Administration's complicity in the denial of the Armenian Genocide and also obstructing justice for American citizens seeking redress through the U.S. courts," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "We will, despite the President's retreat from principle, persevere in the pursuit of the justice owed the Armenian nation."

In a 27-page brief submitted to the Supreme Court earlier today, the U.S. Solicitor General argues that the California law improperly allows courts "to issue judgments based on politically contentious events that occurred in the Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago."

It also makes reference to selective Executive branch opposition to Armenian Genocide legislation, but not the U.S. record of recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a crime of genocide.

The Supreme Court, which had requested the Administration's brief in October of 2012, will consider the Solicitor General’s position, along with several “friend of the court” briefs defending the California Armenian Genocide-era life insurance law.

The case has traveled a long and complex legal path, which has included three separate and conflicting opinions from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the most recent on February 23, 2012. That decision struck down the California law extending the statute of limitations for certain life insurance claims based on an unprecedented expansion of the rarely invoked doctrine of foreign affairs field preemption. In its ruling, the Ninth Circuit invalidated the California law, which was unanimously passed by the legislature, because of Turkish government threats aimed at silencing discussion of the Armenian Genocide in the United States.

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