Two influential Republican congressmen are demanding a hearing on legal guardianship, including the estate of pop megastar Britney Spears – on a major break from the #FreeBritney movement.
The substantial assets of the singer “Oops!… I Did It Again”, who is now 39, have been under her father’s control since 2008.
Representatives Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) And Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) expressed sympathy for Spears and demanded that House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) submit a televised inquiry.
“Given the constitutional freedoms at stake and the opacity of these arrangements, it is up to our Committee to convene a hearing to examine whether Americans are unjustly imprisoned in conservatories,” write Gaetz and Jordan.
“When situations suggest an unfair deprivation of these rights by the government, we have an obligation to oversee and explore possible solutions.”
Spears is suing to remove his father’s guardianship. In November, a court refused to return control of its property, but added a co-conservative, the Bessemer Trust, to jointly manage its business. The singer’s lawyer in that fight, Sam Ingham, and a lawyer representing her father did not immediately respond to the Post’s requests for comment.
The battles of the “I’m a Slave 4 U” singer with her father and the media became the subject of much public debate this year with the release of the FX / New York Times documentary “Framing Britney Spears” on Hulu.
Gaetz and Jordan, best known for their vehement defense of former President Donald Trump, even cited the left-leaning Union for Civil Liberties.
“ACLU is concerned that individuals are being ‘deprived of virtually all of their civil rights through guardianship and guardianship’ and called for the exploration of reforms to ensure that unnecessary guardianship can be closed so that these individuals can run their own lives ‘, ”They write to Nadler.
“The most striking example is perhaps the case of multi-platinum artist Britney Spears. Since 2008, Ms. Spears has been under court-ordered tutelage. The facts and circumstances that gave rise to this agreement remain in dispute, but involve questionable motives and legal tactics by his now conservative father, Jamie Spears. “
Gaetz and Jordan continue: “In court appearances in August and November 2020, Ms. Spears’ lawyer represented in court that Ms. Spears’ strongly opposed ‘having her father as a conservative, that she was afraid of her father and that she would not return to perform publicly as long as this arrangement persisted. Despite these calls, Mr. Spears remains a conservator of his property. “
Nadler and Jordan wrote that, “Although Spears claims to want nothing more than to see Mrs. Spears’ do not need guardianship ‘, her lawyer admitted in a recent documentary,’ Of the cases in which I was involved, I have not seen a conservative who successfully ended a guardianship. ‘”
Nadler’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gaetz and Jordan proposed a broader review of conservatories in addition to the Spears case.
“Em. Spears is not alone. There are countless other Americans unfairly stripped of their
freedoms by others with few resources ”, they write.
“For example, Long Island resident Daniel Gross was forced against his will to guardianship after being hospitalized with cellulite while visiting his daughter in Connecticut. In what the judge called “a terrible judicial error”, Mr. Gross was locked up in a Connecticut nursing home for 10 months, despite his requests for release. “