Supreme Court Upholds Texas Sovereignty

Supreme Court sides with Texas, in a dispute where the World Court ruled in 2004 that the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death row around the United States violated the 1963 Vienna Convention, which provides that people arrested abroad should have access to their home country's consular officials. The Bush administration was seeking to get the courts to go along with this ruling.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, said the international court decision cannot be forced upon the states. SCOTUSblog via Michelle Malkin says:

"The Supreme Court, in a sweeping rejection of claims of power in the presidency, ruled 6-3 on Tuesday that the President does not have the authority to order states to relax their criminal procedures to obey a ruling of the World Court. The decision came in the case of Medellin v. Texas (06-984). Neither a World Court decision requiring U.S. states to provide new review of criminal cases involving foreign nationals, nor a memo by President Bush seeking to enforce the World Court ruling, preempts state law restrictions on challenges to convictions, the Court said in a ruling written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.

The decision, aside from its rebuff of presidential power, also treats the World Court ruling itself as not binding on U.S. states, when it contradicts those states’ criminal procedure rules. The international treaty at issue in this dispute — the Vienna Convention that gives foreign nationals accused of crime a right to meet with diplomats from their home country — is not enforceable as a matter of U.S. law, the Roberts opinion said. "

This is a good day for Texas and American sovereignty and for keeping American law unfettered by the internationalist busybodies.

PS. Those seeking an appeal for Medellin are asking for another chance for a brutal murderer (warning: graphic).