Britney Spears has some amazingly dedicated fans, who have really tried to do their part to look out for the embattled pop star since she was put under a conservatorship in 2008, which was run by her father, Jamie, and attorney Andrew M. Wallet. Early last year, Wallet resigned from his role as co-conservator, and Jamie later temporarily stepped aside due to health reasons, putting someone else in charge of all of Spears' major life decisions. The Free Britney movement, which believes she's being held under the conservatorship against her will, might now have a leg to stand on, though, seeing as how the ACLU has just offered to help Spears.
So, how did the ACLU, after 12 years of this conservatorship and over a year of dedicated drama surrounding it, now (sort of) get involved in the Free Britney movement? Well, according to the Associated Press, Spears recently had her lawyer file some documents which detail her current wishes for the conservatorship moving forward, and she's now gone on record saying that she doesn't want her dad to go back to being the conservator of her person. After the court documents were made public, the ACLU (sort of) stepped in by posting a tweet in support of the singer, saying:
People with disabilities have a right to lead self-directed lives and retain their civil rights. If Britney Spears wants to regain her civil liberties and get out of her conservatorship, we are here to help her.
Fans of Britney Spears who are believers in the Free Britney movement feel that the singer has been either exploited at times while under the conservatorship or held against her will. Shortly after the conservatorship started (which came after she had to be put under an involuntary psychiatric hold at UCLA), she was working again, and not just on one or two projects, but a lot, which made some fans think she was being forced to work when she should have been taking a break to care for her mental health.
As conservator of Britney Spears' person, her father Jamie has control over pretty much all of her life decisions, along with being in charge of her finances, which counts as a separate role that he retained even after temporarily stepping down last September for health reasons. Spears' father has to sign off on anything major she wants to do, whether it be personally or professionally, and all of her purchases (even the smallest ones) are tracked for court documents.
The Free Britney movement started in earnest early last year, after Spears' checked into a mental health facility, reportedly because she was upset over her dad's heath. But, when an anonymous source left a voicemail for the Britney's Gram podcast saying that her hospitalization was ordered by the elder Spears because she wouldn't take her medications, fans organized a protest in front of West Hollywood City Hall, and Free Britney was born.
It was just back in July that Free Britney really got going again, after Spears posted several odd dance videos, selfies and seemingly random photos to Instagram. Fans began to wonder if these were actually coded messages asking for help because she was being held against her will, and started to reply by telling Spears to wear certain colors in her next posts so they would know whether or not she was actually in trouble. And, it appeared that Spears did respond by following through with those requests, so Free Britney fans were convinced something wasn't right.
The court documents recently filed do confirm that Britney Spears, at the very least, is uninterested in having her father control every aspect of her life again. While she noted in the papers that she wants Jodi Montgomery, who took over as temporary conservator of her person when Jamie stepped down last year, to permanently take the position, Spears also said that that request does not mean she's waiving her right to try and end the entire conservatorship at some point.
There's no doubt that this whole thing is sad and messy, and all you can really do is hope that the best thing, whatever that may be, happens for Britney Spears when it comes to her mental health and the conservatorship. It does seem that she wasn't happy with the results when her dad was fully in charge of everything for a time, so maybe if Jodi Montgomery takes on the duty full-time, Spears won't actually need the help of the ACLU to abandon the agreement altogether.
Even though status hearings on the state of Britney Spears' conservatorship have generally been closed to the public and the media, there will likely be more to come on the Free Britney movement in the coming weeks, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest.
