The Supreme Court today asked the Solicitor General to file a brief detailing the U.S. government position on the Ninth Circuit Court decision earlier this year which struck down a California law that allowed Armenian Americans to pursue Genocide-era life insurance claims, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“The ANCA welcomes the Supreme Court’s decision today to ask the Solicitor General to offer the U.S. Government’s position on Armenian Genocide-era insurance claims,” stated ANCA Government Affairs Director Kate Nahapetian.

“The right to seek redress from insurance companies and banks which have improperly profited from genocide-era murders should be absolute. We look to the Solicitor General to ensure that American moral values and property rights are not trumped by foreign – in this case Turkish Government – intervention.”

The U.S. Solicitor General will have several months to review and file its brief regarding the Ninth Circuit Court decision, after which the Supreme Court will decide whether or not to hear the case.

The Supreme Courts decision is the latest in a long and complex legal history that 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 a 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 statute because Turkey opposes references to the Armenian Genocide and the use of the term.