A federal judge has blocked federal funding of embryonic stem cell research following a legal challenge by researchers who say the process involves the destruction of human embryos.

Federal law still prohibits the public funding of human embryo destruction, but the Obama Administration issued new guidelines permitting federal funds for embryonic stem cell research. Judge Royce Lamberth found that the ban applies to such research.

“(Embryonic stem cell) research is clearly research in which an embryo is destroyed,” Lamberth wrote in a 15-page ruling. The Obama administration could appeal his decision or try to rewrite the guidelines to comply with U.S. law.

The suit against the National Institutes of Health, backed by some Christian groups opposed to embryo research, argued the NIH policy violated U.S. law and took funds from researchers seeking to work with adult stem cells.

Just to be clear, Judge Lamberth wasn’t making a moral decision about embryonic stem cell research. He didn’t decide that the research is morally wrong and therefore should be banned. He simply found that actions involved in the research conflict with existing federal law. Stop passing the Dickey-Wicker Amendment every year and such funding will be legal.

Bottom line: The president can’t use an executive order to overrule federal law. He can support such funding and push for a change to federal law, but he can’t order the law ignored. The law is the law. And federal funding for embryonic stem cell research conflicts with the law.