Court spurns Bush in death row case...

Court spurns Bush in death row case


By Joan Biskupic
USA Today, March 25, 2008

Washington, DC -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday rebuffed President Bush's arguments about his power over foreign affairs, ruling 6-3 that Texas and other states need not provide new hearings to Mexican citizens on death row who were not told they could get consular help when arrested.

In a decision that raises questions about U.S. treaty obligations, the court rejected an appeal by Jose Medellin, sentenced to die for the rape and murder of two girls in a gang initiation in 1993.

The majority said that neither a 2004 decision by the International Court of Justice nor a memorandum by President Bush overrides Texas' authority to deny Medellin another hearing.

The International Court of Justice — the United Nations' primary tribunal, based in The Hague, Netherlands — had ruled in 2004 that Medellin and 50 other Mexican nationals on state death rows deserved review of their cases because they had not been told of their consular rights under the Vienna Convention. The 1969 international treaty signed by the United States spells out the right to contact a representative.

Bush, a former Texas governor, issued a memorandum saying states had to abide by the decision.

In an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court said the president may not 'pre-empt' state law. Roberts said the ICJ's view of the U.S. obligation under the Vienna Convention constitutes an international law obligation. But he stressed, 'Not all international law obligations automatically constitute binding federal law enforceable in United States courts.'

He said the president could not, without action by Congress, enforce the IJC judgment.

Some international law experts said the decision could sow confusion. 'The court admits that the international judgment is binding on the United States in international law, but it does not accept that the courts of Texas are bound to carry it out,' says Columbia University law professor Lori Fisler Damrosch, an expert on the ICJ who submitted a brief on Medellin's side.

'This perplexing result will make it more difficult for the United States to insist on compliance by other states … under the Vienna Convention and under the provisions of at least 70 other (comparable) treaties,' Damrosch says.

Justice Department spokesman Erik Ablin said, 'We are disappointed that the Supreme Court rejected the effort to comply with our international legal obligation through presidential action.'

Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito joined Roberts. Justice John Paul Stevens concurred in the judgment that Bush's action was not binding, but he encouraged Texas to hold a hearing into whether Medellin's case was hurt by the lack of consular assistance.

Dissenting were Justices Stephen Breyer, David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. They said the United States' signing of the Vienna Convention requires it to follow ICJ decisions on nations' obligations.



http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-03-25-
scotus-mexican_N.htm