Congress members request hearing on conservatorships, citing #FreeBritney movement

‘Given the constitutional freedom at stake and opaqueness of these arrangements, it is incumbent upon our Committee to convene a hearing to examine whether Americans are trapped unjustly in conservatorships’

Congressional members Jim Jordan of Ohio and Matt Gaetz of Florida have asked House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler to hold a hearing on court-ordered conservatorships, citing the ongoing #FreeBritney movement.

In a letter, the House Republicans wrote that they felt conservatorships are a violation of the Constitution.

“In recent years, there has been growing public concern about the use of conservatorships to effectively deprive individuals of personal freedoms at the behest of others through the manipulation of the courts,” the letter said, according to The Hill. “The most striking example is perhaps the case of multi-platinum performing artist Britney Spears.”

Legal conservatorships are when a judge orders one or more guardians control over a person's finances, if there is reason to believe that they are physically or mentally unfit to do so themselves,

The pop singer's conservatorship, which is overseen by her father Jamie Spears, has been in place since 2008 and is currently under review in Los Angeles.

READ MORE: Britney Spears’s conservatorship and Free Britney movement, explained

“Given the constitutional freedom at stake and opaqueness of these arrangements, it is incumbent upon our Committee to convene a hearing to examine whether Americans are trapped unjustly in conservatorships,” the letter stated.

On Tuesday (9 March), Gaetz tweeted that “Congress can #FreeBritney and @RepJerryNadler has the power to convene a needed hearing on conservatorship due process.”

Currently, the musician’s father remains as her co-conservator, together with financial firm the Bessemer Trust.

In November, a judge declined to remove her father as head of her estate, despite her lawyer, Samuel Ingham, telling the court that the singer was “afraid” of Jamie and would not perform again while he remained her conservator.

Spears’s next hearings over her conservatorship will take place on 17 March and 27 April.