{"id":136,"date":"2008-03-28T11:53:24","date_gmt":"2008-03-28T11:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/supreme-court-strikes-blow-for.html"},"modified":"2008-03-28T11:53:24","modified_gmt":"2008-03-28T11:53:24","slug":"supreme-court-strikes-blow-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/supreme-court-strikes-blow-for.html","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Strikes Blow for U.S. Constitution and U.S. Sovereignty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Supreme Court, by a 6-3 majority in the <em>Medellin v. Texas<\/em> decision, struck a significant blow for the U.S. Constitution and U.S. sovereignty against the encroaching power of international treaties and U.N. authority upon U.S. law.<br \/>\nContrary to much of the reporting in the media, the Supreme Court decision in <em>Medellin v. Texas<\/em> was not primarily either a death penalty case or a decision regarding presidential executive power.<br \/>\nBoth Chief Justice John Roberts\u2019 majority opinion (joined by Justices Alito, Kennedy, Scalia and Thomas) and Justice Breyer\u2019s dissent (joined by Justices Souter and Ginsburg) make it clear the justices understood the Medellin case to be about the scope and authority of international law in domestic U.S. courts.  Justice Stevens wrote a separate opinion concurring with the majority.<br \/>\nThe Medellin Case involved Jos\u00e9 Medellin, a Mexican citizen who had lived in Texas since childhood and was convicted in 1993 of the brutal murders of two teenage girls and sentenced to death.<br \/>\nMedellin signed a confession, having been read his Miranda rights.  However, Medellin was not informed of his rights as a Mexican national under the Vienna Convention to notify Mexican consular officials of his arrest and detention.<br \/>\nIn 2005 President George W. Bush ordered the Texas judicial system to comply with a 2004 World Court (the International Court of Justice) decision that would have reopened Medellin\u2019s case.<br \/>\nJustice Roberts, writing for the majority, acknowledged that President Bush\u2019s motivations (to insure reciprocal observance by foreign governments of the Vienna Convention and to protect international relations) were \u201cplainly compelling,\u201d but concluded by saying that, \u201cSuch considerations \u2026 do not allow us to set aside first principles.\u201d  In this case, the \u201cfirst principles\u201d involved the president\u2019s ability to issue a directive that \u201creaches deep into the heart of the state\u2019s police powers and compels state courts to reopen final criminal judgments and set aside neutrally applicable state laws.\u201d<br \/>\nThe Roberts majority rightly decided that treaty obligations do NOT trump American law.  Treaty obligations only trump American law when the Congress of the United States acts legislatively to incorporate them into American jurisprudence through legislative action, thus making the treaty obligations part of American law.  As Justice Roberts pointedly concluded, \u201cThe primary role in deciding when and how international agreements will be enforced\u201d must be left to the legislative branch of the U.S. government, the American people\u2019s elected representatives.<br \/>\nThis Supreme Court-erected \u201cfirewall\u201d between international law and American domestic law and sovereignty was much needed and will be the enduring legacy of the Medellin decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Supreme Court, by a 6-3 majority in the Medellin v. Texas decision, struck a significant blow for the U.S. Constitution and U.S. sovereignty against the encroaching power of international treaties and U.N. authority upon U.S. law. Contrary to much of the reporting in the media, the Supreme Court decision in Medellin v. Texas&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Supreme Court Strikes Blow for U.S. Constitution and U.S. Sovereignty - Casting Stones<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/supreme-court-strikes-blow-for.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court Strikes Blow for U.S. Constitution and U.S. Sovereignty - Casting Stones\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The U.S. Supreme Court, by a 6-3 majority in the Medellin v. Texas decision, struck a significant blow for the U.S. Constitution and U.S. sovereignty against the encroaching power of international treaties and U.N. authority upon U.S. law. Contrary to much of the reporting in the media, the Supreme Court decision in Medellin v. 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