Obama asks Supreme Court not to hear Armenian Genocide-era insurance claims case

[Judi Lynn]

Source: NEWS.am

Obama asks Supreme Court not to hear Armenian Genocide-era insurance claims case
May 11, 2013 | 11:18

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.


Read more: http://news.am/eng/news/153026.html

[Stuart G]

1. Armanian Genocide ...some info and a link:

The Armenian Genocide[4] (Armenian: Հայոց Ցեղասպանություն, [hɑˈjɔtsʰ tsʰɛʁɑspɑnuˈtʰjun]), also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, traditionally among Armenians, as the Great Crime (Armenian: Մեծ Եղեռն, [mɛts jɛˈʁɛrn]; English transliteration: Medz Yeghern [Medz/Great + Yeghern/Crime])[5][6] was the Ottoman government's systematic extermination of its minority Armenian subjects from their historic homeland in the territory constituting the present-day Republic of Turkey. It took place during and after World War I and was implemented in two phases: the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacre and forced labor, and the deportation of women, children, the elderly and infirm on death marches to the Syrian Desert.[7][8] The total number of people killed as a result has been estimated at between 1 and 1.5 million. The Assyrians, the Greeks and other minority groups were similarly targeted for extermination by the Ottoman government, and their treatment is considered by many historians to be part of the same genocidal policy.[9][10][11]

It is acknowledged to have been one of the first modern genocides,[12][13]:p.177[14] as scholars point to the organized manner in which the killings were carried out to eliminate the Armenians,[15] and it is the second most-studied case of genocide after the Holocaust.[16] The word genocide was coined in order to describe these events.[17][18]

The starting date of the genocide is conventionally held to be April 24, 1915, the day when Ottoman authorities arrested some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople.[19][20] Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. Massacres were indiscriminate of age or gender, with rape and other sexual abuse commonplace.[21] The majority of Armenian diaspora communities were founded as a result of the Armenian genocide.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide

[farmbo]

6. Stop already! There's a compelling argument for the dismissal.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/02/armenian-genocide-successors-claims-against-german-insurers-dismissed-by-appeals-court.html

The issue is not the Armenian genocide or Turkish strong-arming, it's whether a state legislature can re-write a foreign contract and force a German Insurance company to pay claims.

It is a question of federal sovereignty in foreign policy.

Does DU want to give the Texas legislature that kind of authority?

Perhaps that's why the Ninth Circuit-- the most liberal appellate circuit in the country-- voted 11-0 in favor of dismissal.

[LeftInTX]

14. In this case it's sad, but it's true.

The same issue came about with the nasty Arizona immigration laws.

[kidgie]

15. State Legislatures

Look at the section "State Legislatures". California did something similar with Jewish Holocaust survivors.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/crs5.html

[hrmjustin]

16. Welcome to DU my friend!

[kidgie]

19. Thanks!

[Rhiannon12866]

20. Thanks for posting this and welcome to DU!

Important information and long overdue.

[Le Taz Hot]

3. Thousands of refugees from the Armenian genocide

settled in my area and their children, grandchildren, etc., are still here. Another tragic move by this administration. Can't this man ever just do the right thing? Ever?

[byeya]

4. No, apparently not

[msanthrope]

13. The right thing would be allowing a state legislature to rewrite foreign contracts?

As a poster above noted, you think allowing the state of Texas that power would work out well?

[okaawhatever]

21. Are you kidding me? He supposed to let scotus, this scotus at that, to get involved with

foreign policy? Who does the constitution give foreign treaty powers to?

[Spider Jerusalem]

22. Constitutionality is the crux of the issue

Congress makes treaties; the executive branch of the federal government carries out foreign policy as determined by laws passed by Congress (including treaties). State legislatures have no authority to pass laws of an international scope; the Supreme Court would be quite right in overturning any such law passed by any state legislature.

[okaawhatever]

24. The executive branch makes treaties, with the advise and consent of the Senate. nt

[Bluenorthwest]

5. Morally absent Obama.

Shameful.

[libdude]

7. Situational ethics and morals

President Obama concerns me at times due to what I percieve to be a view of ethics and morals that are guided by the political situation and not from a firm basis. As an example or two, the Justice Dept. failing to prosecute any bankers involved in the recent banking scandals, i.e. HSBC, the raids on state approved med pot operations in Calif. the conducting of the drone strikes against U.S. citizens without due process, the drone program in general. I know that was more than two, but that only reinforces the concern I have and many others have expressed in their postings that he at times appears to not be guided by a core of ethics.

[John2]

8. I still don't understand

what the argument is and whom the complainants are seeking redress from? The Ottoman Empire no longer exists. is the complaint against the present Turkish Government, United States or whom? Who are they seeking damages from if any?

[LeftInTX]

12. It is life insurance claims

Policies were purchased in Turkey between 1875 and 1923. It's a very long story as to why the benefits weren't paid. New York Life finally paid benefits in 2005. However, these policies were with a German insurance company. The German company doesn't want to pay the claims. At this time, there are no federal statutes that require the German company to pay the claims.

[whistler162]

17. If it is a German Insurance company, not owned

by a American insurance company, then the issue should be handled in Germany. Seems like the plaintiffs went jury or legislation shopping until they found someone who agreed with their point of view! Not. a good precedent to establish.

[Spider Jerusalem]

23. why should there be?

I don't really see how there could conceivably be any scope for a US law that requires a German insurance company to pay out on policies taken out by Armenians living in what was then the Ottoman Empire. It doesn't involve US citizens, US companies, or actions of the US government.

[JDPriestly]

9. There needs to be a statute of limitations on such claims.

Pretty soon, people will be going back hundreds of years.

At the same time, I think that our country should officially acknowledge the Armenian genocide. But the people who were killed cannot be brought back, and their land now belongs to others.

We should be watching out for those who are suffering from such genocides right now as I write, and commemorating those in past genocides.

[Gregorian]

10. My family was directly affected by that genocide. Everything should be done to avoid another.

Everything. By stopping short of anything, any time, anywhere, we leave a crack in a door.

My life was profoundly different than it could have been. And my family were lucky to be wealthy, and get a 24 hour head start to leave the country, leaving their marble floored palace behind. They grew pistachios, and were very wealthy from it. They lost it all. My grandmother died poor in an apartment in LA because of that horrible mass movement of people. Some claim it was worse then Auschwitz as they were literally put in trains and just shipped around as they died inside those cars. Or simply marched across deserts to die.

I don't wear my Obama sweatshirt any more. I'm always let down by our presidents, maybe with the exception of Carter. I know they're nice people. Clinton and Obama. But they just didn't want to rock the boat. Fuck the republican's boat.

[LeftInTX]

11. Mine were poor

That is very sad about your grandmother.

Fortunately, my grandfather and great grandfather came before the massacres. They got jobs in a glue factory in Milwaukee. The women and children stayed behind. Out of those that remained in Turkey, I don't know how many we actually lost. However, my grandmother survived. The unionized glue factory was good to my family.

[Gregorian]

25. There's more. I have a great uncle who now has a statue in his honor, I think in Aintab.

My grandmother's family, just before leaving, had their belongings in a little store, to sell and keep living. One day, as the story was told to me, a prince rode up on his horse. He was going to take/marry my grandmother. I only know that she was terrified. I think it meant a certain death for her. She closed her eyes and prayed. When she opened them the prince had gone. The mayor was the one who came the night before the invasion, and told them what was going on. They put on a money belt and left for America.

My great uncle stayed. He opened a school for the orphans who were left behind. A group of nasty men who either wanted the land, or something, killed him. The town erected a statue in his honor.

This is all I know about my family. When my grandparents came to LA, they knew enough to buy real estate, some of which was bought by Mae West. But early on, my grandfather died, during the depression. They lost it all.

It takes very little to disrupt the natural world. Here I am 100 years later, wondering. Wondering who and where I'd be had the genocide not happened. Who my relatives were. Who I am.

[Sunlei]

18. maybe 'Cons can blame Obama for the post civil war black Genocide and

Custers Genocide of thousands of native North Americans

[treestar]

26. How can anything from that era still be litigated?

The Statute of Limitations can't be that long.