by Andrew Hanauer
Last week, Jubilee USA filed an Amicus Brief to the US Supreme Court in the Argentina/NML Capital "Debt Trial of the Century."
Our brief was co-signed by nearly 80 faith communities and religious and development organizations, and was covered extensively in the press. Nearly 2,000 of our supporters have written to Congress expressing support for the principles enshrined in our filing. We are proud to have brought the voices of millions of the world's poorest people to the Supreme Court in what will be a profoundly important case.
We are also proud of the brief itself, which begins like a prayer, becomes a doctoral thesis summary, and ends like a sermon. Below you can read it for yourself.
One line from the brief continues to resonate most heavily with our supporters and those involved in the issue of predatory financial behavior:
"Using law to dispossess the poor for the pleasure of the powerful offends not only the sense of justice embodied in United States policy, but the even more ancient principles of biblical justice revealed in the scriptures of our faiths."