SCHIFF CALLS ON APPEALS COURT TO REHEAR CASE REGARDING INSURANCE CLAIMS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS

States News Service
September 22, 2009 Tuesday

Congressman Adam Schiff, a Congressional Leader on Armenian issues
and co-author of the California State law allowing family members of
Armenian Genocide victims to request payment on the life-insurance
policies of relatives, late yesterday filed an amicus brief with the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in support of a petition
for a rehearing before the entire Ninth Circuit Court. In late August,
a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit struck down the California
state law which allowed the insurance claims, claiming the state law
was pre-empted by federal policy.

In the brief, Rep. Schiff argues that the federal government has never
discouraged states from recognizing the Armenian Genocide or acted to
pre-empt state efforts to allow insurance claims to go forward. Schiff
also pointed out that the state law contains a "severability" clause,
meaning any reference held to be invalid can be severed from the rest
of the law.

"It would be a tragically unjust result – not to mention one
unsupported by law — for this court to deny relief to the victims
of these atrocities because of the use of an historically accepted
term that, however proper, could be severed from the statute by its
own terms," said Schiff. "Nothing in law or equity compels such an
injurious result."

In the brief, Rep. Schiff points out that neither Congress nor the
Executive Branch has ever taken a position or acted to preempt state
efforts to resolve insurance claims of Armenian Genocide victims and
their heirs. Additionally, Rep. Schiff demonstrates that neither of
these branches of government has ever acted to preempt or discourage
states’ recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

The U.S. government has consistently recognized that 1.5 million
Armenians lost their lives at the hands of the Ottoman Empire between
1915 and 1923, and the federal government has always supported
efforts by those who are the subject of horrific violence to obtain
compensation for their injury – particularly when they have a valid
contractual right to recover