Tag: britney

People Under Conservator-Ship Aren’t Free To Marry Who They Want – Even Britney Spears
CELEBRITY NEWS, Journalism

People Under Conservator-Ship Aren’t Free To Marry Who They Want – Even Britney Spears

Disability and marriage have an especially fraught relationship in American history. Sara Luterman Originally published by The 19th On Sunday, Britney Spears announced her engagement to her longtime boyfriend, Sam Asghari. Spears’ Instagram account appears to be on hiatus, but a defiant announcement remains on Asghari’s account – a photo of Spears and Asghari kissing, their faces hidden behind Spears’ outstretched, adorned ring finger. While it might look like an ordinary celebrity announcement, it’s actually much more. Spears is claiming a right stripped of her under her conservator-ship: the right to marry. Conservator-ship is a legal arrangement in which someone, usually a family member, is appointed by a judge to manage the finances or daily life of another person due to incapac...
Reconsidering The Britney Spears Case – Requires Reconsidering How Society Thinks About Decision-Making Capacity
CELEBRITY NEWS

Reconsidering The Britney Spears Case – Requires Reconsidering How Society Thinks About Decision-Making Capacity

Elyn Saks, University of Southern California Britney Spears’ impassioned remarks in court have raised many questions about conservator-ships, including when they’re necessary and whether they effectively protect someone’s best interests. When one loses the capacity to make decisions for oneself the court appoints a guardian, or conservator, to make those decisions. Appointing someone to make decisions about personal and financial matters on another’s behalf has been part of civil society since the ancient Greeks. Today, all jurisdictions in the U.S. have conservator-ship laws to protect people who lack the ability to make their own decisions. As a distinguished professor of law at the University of Southern California, and as a person who was diagnosed over four decades ago with chronic...
Britney Spears Conservator-Ships Can Lead To Abuse – Here’s Why
CELEBRITY NEWS

Britney Spears Conservator-Ships Can Lead To Abuse – Here’s Why

Naomi Cahn, University of Virginia “I’m here to get rid of my dad and charge him with conservatorship abuse,” Britney Spears told a California court on July 14, 2021. She said that he was ruining her life, and in previous testimony she claimed that a team led by her father controlled her schedule, prevented her from having another baby and bullied her. She may soon get her wish after the judge in the case said she could hire her own lawyer, former prosecutor Mathew Rosengart, who plans to file paperwork soon to end the conservatorship on her behalf. To terminate a conservatorship, California law simply requires the filing of a petition demonstrating that it is no longer required. Spears’ case is unusual: Conservatorships are typically not imposed on someone who doesn’t have severe cogni...
Britney Spears Lost Her Reproductive Freedom, Tragically Her Case Is Not Unique
CELEBRITIES

Britney Spears Lost Her Reproductive Freedom, Tragically Her Case Is Not Unique

From the founding of this nation through the modern day, women and members of marginalized communities have faced forced sterilization and other reproductive coercion. Jennifer Gerson, Barbara Rodriguez Originally published by The 19th When Britney Spears revealed on Wednesday that being under conservatorship had denied her the right to have her IUD removed and have another child, her words set off shockwaves of horrified disbelief. “I deserve to have the same rights as anybody does, by having a child, a family, any of those things, and more so,” Spears said in Wednesday’s testimony to the judge. But reproductive coercion is hardly unique to Spears: It’s a systemic component of an American system, both legal and cultural, that disproportionately impacts women and marginalized commun...