The Free Britney Act: conservatorship fight sparks legislative push

Prompted by Britney Spears legal battles, a bipartisan legislative effort has emerged to reform the process

Supporters of Britney Spears wave 'Free Britney' flags outside the Los Angeles County Courthouse during a scheduled hearing in the Britney Spears guardianship case, in California on July 19, 2021. AFP

Prompted by Britney Spears’s conservatorship fight, a bipartisan legislative effort has been launched to reform the process created to protect the rights of more than one million people across the US placed under protective arrangements.

On Tuesday, Representatives Charlie Crist and Nancy Mace unveiled The Free Britney Act, designed to give more options to people placed under conservatorships. Those include the ability to talk about their situations with caseworkers – over any objections from their conservators – and petition a court to replace their conservators without having to “prove wrongdoing or malfeasance.”

“This is just a common-sense approach to doing what is right, to making sure that rights are balanced,” Crist, a Florida Democrat, said during a virtual news conference on Tuesday.

Both Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, and Crist said it was Spears’s passionate plea last month for a judge to end the conservatorship controlling her life and finances that spurred their proposal.

“What she had was an opportunity to do is bring to light, to shine a light, on those abuses,” Mace said. “Her situation is a nightmare, and if it can happen to Britney Spears, it can happen to anyone in this country.”

Speaking in open court, Spears condemned her father and others who control the conservatorship, which was put in place after Spears underwent a mental health crisis in 2008. Spears said the arrangement has compelled her to use birth control and take other medications against her will, and prevented her from getting married or having another child.

Spears’s father and his lawyers have emphasised that she and her fortune, which court records put at more than $50 million, remain vulnerable to fraud and manipulation. Under current law, the burden is on Spears to prove she is competent before the case could end.

Mace and Crist said they expected more bipartisan support for the measure, which would also provide at least $260 million in grant funds for states to hire caseworkers or conservators.

The #FreeBritney movement has already crossed party lines.

“Everyone deserves control over their own body. Period,” US Representative Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the fourth-ranking House Democrat, tweeted in June following Spears’ testimony.

Some House Republicans have invited Spears to testify before Congress. The political arm of the House Republican caucus sent texts that described Spears as “a victim of toxic gov’t overreach & censorship”.

Earlier in July, Florida Republican US Representative Matt Gaetz, a close ally of former president Donald Trump, made a brief appearance addressing Spears's supporters outside the downtown Los Angeles courthouse, at one point shouting “Free Britney!”