By Laurie Asseo. .c The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, 22 (AP) - The Supreme Court, rejecting an unusual request, today stayed out of the controversy over whether 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez should be returned to Cuba.
The court, without comment, turned down the appeal of an Arizona man, no relative of the young shipwreck survivor, that asked the justices to ``cut short'' legal and political maneuvering and order the boy immediately returned to his father.
Robert A. Hirschfeld, a disbarred lawyer from Phoenix, filed his request directly to the Supreme Court, bypassing lower courts. He said he is founder of the National Congress for Fathers and Children and an advocate of ``preservation of the father-child bond.''
Elian has been the subject of heated debate since he was found clinging to an inner tube Nov. 25 off the Florida coast. His mother and 10 others traveling with him drowned during their effort to leave Cuba.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service has ordered the boy sent back to his father in Cuba, but Elian's relatives in Miami are suing the U.S. government to keep him in this country.
Meanwhile, support in Congress for legislation to make Elian an American citizen has fizzled.
Hirschfeld's petition to the Supreme Court said, ``Time is of the essence in accomplishing the lawful return of the boy to his father.''
Delays in sending the boy back to Cuba ``could achieve such an extended isolation of Elian from his father, that it eventually would be claimed that the father-son relationship had ceased to exist,'' Hirschfeld said.
He asked the justices to use their authority to keep someone from being held unlawfully, saying such power can be used ``when a noncitizen child is involuntarily brought into the United States.''
The case is Hirschfeld vs. Rodriguez, 99-1222.
AP-NY-02-22-00 1029EST
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. |