9/11 Families 'Shocked' After Supreme Court Rejects Burial Appeal

By Daniel Burke
Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS) Relatives of 9/11 victims who believe debris from Ground Zero contains human remains and should be given a suitable burial said they are "shocked" that the Supreme Court on Monday (Oct. 4) refused to hear their appeal.

"Denying our right to present this in court is a denial of justice that is indeed shocking," said Diane Horning, whose son, Matthew, was killed nine years ago in the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center. "Denying the burial is a blatant denial of our free exercise of religion."

Horning is president and co-founder of WTC Families for Proper Burial, a group that believes the 1.6 million tons of debris left by the collapsing towers in 2001 has not been adequately sifted for remains and should not be dumped in a landfill on Staten Island. No remains have been found for nearly 1,100 of the 2,752 9/11 victims, according to The Associated Press.

Lower courts have sided with New York City officials, who argue that they have already looked through the tons of debris for remains.

"The city approached the task with dignity, care and respect, and as a result, thousands of human remains and personal items were located," Peter Wies, deputy chief of the New York City Law Department's World Trade Center unit, told Bloomberg News.

Horning sharply criticized New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for supporting the right of Muslims to build an Islamic community center near Ground Zero, while denying a proper burial for 9/11 victims.

"He has been given the absolute authority to decide that none of the people who died at the World Trade Center should be permitted the rites and rituals of religious burials," Horning said.

Comments

[time2impeach]

12:53 AM on 10/10/2010

As a New Yorker who lived and worked in downtown Manhattan at the time of the attack, I have tremendous sympathy for those who lost family and friends in the collapse. I think the City has exercised tremendous care and diligence in the recovery.

The fact of the matter is that the tower's collapse released an extraordinary amount of energy, and doubtless many people were vaporized by the heat and pressure. Trying to give appropriate burial to these "remains," I'm sorry to say, strikes me as sheer folly.

I'd suggest that any of the survivors of the victims who feel the need to have something substantive should be allowed to take a vessel of the debris which they could inter as they see fit.

Compelling the City to provide "burial" for 1.6 million tons of debris, or alternately continue to sift through in a search for remains, are unreasonable demands.

[blueskybigstar]

01:15 PM on 10/10/2010

All three buildings stayed melted for nearly two months, which is much too much energy to be released by two planes and the collapse. Very sophisticated explosives have been found in the debris that only the U.S. and Israel had access to.

http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/fiveisraelis.html?q=fiveisraelis.html

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://rawstory.com/2009/2010/03/revealed-ashcroft-tenet-rumsfeld-warned-911-commission-line-should-cross/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/29/osama-bin-laden-senate-report

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathleen-wells/bush-intentionally-let-os_b_395664.html

[blueskybigstar]

01:20 PM on 10/10/2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_tf25lx_3o

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/07/27/a-danish-scientist-breaks-the-911-culture-of-silence/

[PG812]

05:14 PM on 10/10/2010

Your posts do not belong here.

[pelhambx]

10:32 PM on 10/09/2010

http://www.zimbio.com/The+Brooding+Cynyx/articles/3q63ZiJ5i7L/REMAINS+OF+THE+DAY

[patman77]

08:20 AM on 10/09/2010

let it go. spare yourselves more grief by building a monument/pedestal for your anger...sad.

[DinkSinger]

02:15 AM on 10/09/2010

While it is true that no remains have been identified for nearly 1,100 of the victims, it is also true that the New York Medical Examiner has almost 9,000 recovered remains that as of yet have not been identified. Currently these are housed in trailers outside the ME's office, but the memorial being built at Ground Zero will include a vault where these remains will be stored along side a branch of the ME's office where attempts to identify them will continue. Hopefully as science improves many more identifications will be made and many more families will receive remains of their loved ones.

[CSKAP]

10:37 AM on 10/08/2010

Saying they "Can't get justice" is just plain wrong. They went to court, the court found against them, they appealed, they lost, they moved on and the Supremes said for all intents, "Nope, the lower court is right so we won't hear it again.
Justice is not just getting the result you want. If that was the case then in 50% of all court cases, someone "didn't get justice"

[Steve Stephan]

09:14 AM on 10/07/2010

Can they not trap that area and then cover it with cement? All but bones are left,then have a Interfaith service at the site each family perhaps even hold their service with their own clergy member.I do know that prior to anything taken from Ground O, The Ground was Blessed as well as Consecrated a (Burial site,) according to the Cannon's of the Church,we were present when it took place on Sept 14 2001 At 8:00 p.m. as requested by a Fire Commander from the N.Y.F.D. 2 Catholic clergy 1 Lutheran 1 Baptist and other denomination 1 orthodox clergy were present.at least that was done prior to loading anything for transport.They walked around the whole area blessing and Consecrating the ground, it took nearly 1 hr to complete.the service.

[bar1ed]

03:53 AM on 10/07/2010

A nightmare that just wont go away! Until the next one.

[Mikeeee]

07:19 PM on 10/06/2010

This can't happen because if they open this door, then other doors will want to be opened, like oh I dunno, why was a crime scene disposed of without a criminal investigation?

[Ryan Magdangal]

05:30 PM on 10/06/2010

This is the Republicant led corporatist court that rules with 1 vote majority. I can't wait for one of these goons to step down or have mother nature dispose of them.

[patman77]

03:52 PM on 10/06/2010

from dust to dust. or as jim morrison stated "nobody gets out alive" please quit building pedestals for resentment and anger and self-pity. lets move on and make this our country again.

[Mikeeee]

04:35 PM on 10/06/2010

I agree but you can't do that until bushco is in jail.

[patman77]

08:23 AM on 10/09/2010

and I agree.also.

[raker]

03:28 PM on 10/06/2010

The Supreme Court serves corporate interests, and that's all.

[right Alice]

01:24 PM on 10/10/2010

'Supreme Co."

[MIKEinNYC]

12:38 PM on 10/06/2010

The Supremes take maybe 85 cases a year. The chances of them hearing your case out of all of the requests is close to nil.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

11:59 AM on 10/06/2010

Sad.

Of course identified remains, or even unidentified remains, deserve proper burial, etc.

But what's at issue here is debris so well sifted as to be ostensibly free of remains.

Again, very sad.

HOWEVER, why these families shouldn't have a chance to MAKE THEIR CASE is beyond me.

Shame on the Supremes. But they've done worse.

[tcny]

01:21 PM on 10/08/2010

The Supreme Court does not take up cases where, in their opinion, the lower court decision was clearly appropriate and no constitutional issue is in question.

They turn away dozens, if not hundreds, of requests every session. Having the right to appeal to the S.C. does not guarantee the Court will hear arguments.

[Libby123]

10:05 AM on 10/06/2010

While I am sympathetic to the families who feel as though they have not been able to "lay to rest" either the loved ones they lost or the loss itself, I wonder whether their feelings of injustice are misplaced. This isn't really a matter of religious freedom and therefore, a Supreme Court issue. Horning's statement that mayor Bloomberg is denying the victims' rights to religious rituals are unfair. Sometimes there simply are no remains. Planes full of jet fuel exploded and created a fires so hot that they melted the steel structural members of two huge buildings. The bodies were cremated. There simply is no way to retrieve remains from something like that.

[barefoot2626]

10:39 AM on 10/06/2010

I agree.

It is my understanding that certain criminal groups placed the bodies of people they murdered in the foundation of famous NY buildings (such as the Empire State Building). Are we to tear them down to retrieve the remains? Erect memorials at the sites of all fatal accidents?

[tcny]

01:25 PM on 10/08/2010

Exactly.

The government made reasonable efforts to recover and identify remains; it is not government's responsibility to make unreasonable, endless, unlimited efforts.

No more than it is the responsibility of the government to dredge the entire ocean to recover a drowning victim, or search endless wilderness non-stop until a lost hiker's remains are found.