Britney Spears offered support from ACLU after conservatorship extended

Britney Spears has been offered help by The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) amid the singer’s legal battle to remove her father as her sole conservator.

The ACLU, a nonprofit organisation founded to defend and preserve individual rights and liberties, tweeted in support of the pop star after a ruling last week by a Los Angeles judge to extend her conservatorship until February 2021.

Spears, 38, remains under a legal conservatorship which renders the singer unable to make decisions concerning her lifestyle, finances and career.

“People with disabilities have a right to lead self-directed lives and retain their civil rights,” the organisation wrote. “If Britney Spears wants to regain her civil liberties and get out of her conservatorship, we are here to help her.”

It also published an article to the ACLU website titled How Conservatorship Threatens Britney Spears’ Civil Rights, sharing the link on Twitter with the message, “Conservatorships can result in serious financial, physical, or emotional abuse.”

A conservatorship is granted when a person is deemed unable to make their own decisions, typically because of mental incapacity.

Following an alleged “breakdown” in 2007, Spears has been under her father Jamie’s guardianship since 2008.

Last Monday (17 August), Spears’ lawyers had stated that the singer is “strongly opposed” to having her father as her conservator.

Spears’ conservatorship has been the subject of widespread online protests this year under the hashtag #FreeBritney.