Supreme Court Rejects World Court Jurisdiction

The high court properly rebuked Bush. But it should have given a Mexican man his day in court.

Go to Los Angeles Times original
The U.S. Supreme Court got it half-right Tuesday when it ruled that President Bush lacked the authority to tell courts in Texas to honor a decision of the International Court of Justice and reopen the case of a Mexican citizen on Texas' death row. But it should have acted on its own authority to give Jose Medellin another day in court. By not doing so, it sends the message that the United States isn't serious about honoring its treaty obligations.

In 2004, the World Court ruled that Medellin and 50 other Mexicans sentenced to death in the United States -- including 28 in California -- had been deprived of their rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. That treaty, ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1969, requires that consulates be informed when one of their nationals is arrested or imprisoned. The international court directed the United States "to provide by means of its own choosing, review and reconsideration of the convictions and sentences of the Mexican nationals."

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