#FreeBritney
Working in the field of guardianship and conservatorship, I have come to accept one fact about the news media: If a reporter is interested in a guardianship case, it is never to report how well everything is going! But this isn’t a complaint about reporters. To the contrary, we need professional investigative journalists more than ever, and this post is a salute to some journalists who have educated me and millions of others about the nightmare which is Britney Spears’s conservatorship.
It can be hard to report about guardianships and conservatorships, because most journalists aren’t lawyers (Ronan Farrow being a notable exception) and because usually sensitive personal and mental health information is kept under seal by the Court. So quick disclaimer: I do not know the contents of Britney Spears’s court file, nor do I know the extent of her disability, if indeed she is disabled at all. But if the reporting is at all true, her case is very concerning.
I’m not going to rehash the great reporting, some of which I have linked below. I just want to say (1) I was horrified to learn Ms. Spears was unable to control her own reproductive rights, and (2) I was probably even more horrified to learn Ms. Spears has been unable to hire her own attorney for years - until yesterday.
I won’t say a Britney Spears “nightmare” couldn’t happen in Washington, but I will say that persons who are alleged to be incapacitated in Washington State have the right to counsel “of their choosing,” so it is stunning to me that someone like Britney Spears was denied that right.
Anyway, I’m #TeamBritney and will continue to follow her case with interest. Read more below:
Suggested Additional Viewing / Reading
New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears (Video Documentary)
Britney Spears’s Conservatorship Nightmare, New Yorker, July 3, 2021, by Ronan Farrow and Jia Tolentino
Britney Spears gets her choice of attorney and calls for her father to be charged with conservatorship abuse, CNN July 15, 2021, by Chloe Melas and Faith Karimi