United States v. Nagarwala, No. 17-CR-20274 (E.D. Mich.) November 20, 2018.
The federal court has dismissed criminal charges against physicians said to be practicing female genital manipulation. Defendants had been indicted for violation of a federal statute intended to protect adolescent girls from these practices. The district court found error in the federal use of authority in what it perceived to be a matter for state law. The “necessary and proper” clause of the United States Constitution is not an independent grant of power, the court observed. Any power Congress might have respecting effectuating international treaties ensuring equal civil and political rights does not reach the genital mutilation considered by the federal statute, nor does the practice have any relationship to interstate activity, such that criminal sanctions might be justified under the Commerce Clause.
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