October 29, 2012/Liberty Counsel --
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the Oklahoma Personhood Initiative case of Personhood Oklahoma v. Barber. Last spring, the Oklahoma Supreme Court stopped a citizen's initiative before it was even placed on the ballot.
The proposed amendment would have defined "person" as "any human being from the beginning of the biological development of that human being to natural death."
The Oklahoma attorney general had approved the ballot title and summary, and Personhood Oklahoma was in the process of gathering signatures in order to place the issue before the voters, when the ACLU, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and others filed a lawsuit claiming the proposed amendment was unconstitutional. Ten days later, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the initiative violated the U.S. Supreme Court's 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
The Court's decision not to take up the Oklahoma Personhood initiative has no precedential value. The issue is not about the merits of personhood but about whether a state court can interfere with the rights of citizens to gather signatures to amend their constitutions.
Pray that Personhood initiatives will continue to expand throughout the country and that the government acknowledges what science has long recognized - that human life begins from the moment of conception or fertilization and should be protected in law from its earliest beginnings.
Read our News Release for more details.
