1、CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i Congressional Authority to Enact Criminal Law: Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) June 21, 2019 18 U.S.C. 116 proscribes female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice rooted in traditional or religious beliefs
2、 in certain parts of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Among other things, the federal statute (FGM statute) makes it a crime to knowingly circumcise, excise, or infibulate the labia majora, labia minora, or clitoris of a minor unless a medical exception applies. Though the FGM statute was enacted
3、in the 1990s, it went essentially unused for over twenty years. Then, in April 2017, federal prosecutors brought charges under the statute in the Eastern District of Michigan against two physicians, medical support personnel, and several mothers who allegedly brought their daughters to the physician
4、s for FGM procedures. In November 2018, however, the district court dismissed all of the FGM charges in that caseUnited States v. Nagarwalaon the ground that Congress lacked constitutional authority to enact a central piece of the FGM statute. The district courts decision and subsequent developments
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