Anti-Research Legalistics

An LA Times op-ed looks at the present legal fight over public funding for embryonic stem cell research in California: "parties sometimes advance novel legal theories in a good-faith effort to change the law. Sometimes, however, they make frivolous arguments in an effort to obscure issues or just to create delay. ... The latter strategy is just abusive. The lawsuit challenging Proposition 71, the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative, is an example of the latter. ... What is most troubling is not that the plaintiffs' arguments lack legal heft but that they no doubt realize this, yet argue anyway. The three groups fighting Proposition 71 - two pro-life associations and an anti-tax organization - are not what you would describe as passionate about technical governance issues. But because they know the state cannot issue the bonds to fund research while litigation is pending, they are using weak legal justifications to delay the inevitable."

Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-korobkin3mar03,1,3776195.story