WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court granted on Thursday an Obama administration request for an emergency stay that temporarily lifts a judge's ban on federal funding of research involving human embryonic stem cells.
The three-judge panel of the appeals court said in a brief order that it put on hold the judge’s ban to give it sufficient opportunity to consider the merits of the administration’s emergency request for a stay.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth last month ruled that the research violated U.S. law because it involved destroying human embryos, a setback for President Barack Obama, who had tried to expand research in hopes it would lead to new cures of diseases.
The appeals court ordered that briefs be filed by Sept. 20 in the case. It then will decide whether the temporary stay should be extended or ended.
The administration said in its emergency request to the appeals court that Lamberth’s ruling was at odds with the intent of Congress when it wrote the law limiting federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research and that it would undercut ongoing medical research.
