U.S. Supreme Court: Texas sovereignty prevails in criminal prosecution
The Supreme Court says Texas does not have to give a new hearing to a Mexican on death row for rape and murder, deciding a case that mixes presidential power, international relations and the death penalty.
The case pits the president against his home state of Texas. By a 6-3 vote, the court says President Bush does not have the authority to order a new hearing for the prisoner.
It put Bush in the unusual position of siding with death row prisoner Jose Ernesto Medellin (ho-SAY ehr-NES-to meh-DEH-yeen), a Mexican citizen whom police prevented from consulting with Mexican diplomats, as provided by international treaty.
The ruling is here: Medellin v. Texas, No. 06-984 (U.S. March 25, 2008)
Stay tuned for updates to this post throughout the day.
Marty Lederman has this commentary on SCOTUS Blog: The Executive Question Might Not Be the Most Important Aspect of Medellin
Lyle Denniston has this commentary on SCOTUS Blog: States win over President on Criminal Law issue. He begins:
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.
Jonathan Adler has this post on the Volokh Conspiracy: A Texas-Sized Win for Texas in Medellin. He mentions a forthcoming insta-symposium on the ruling at Opinio Juris.
Ed Whalen provides a summary of the opinion and links to background on the case on the National Review Bench Memos blog.
4 Comments
This is making it clear that anyone coming to the USA has to adhear to the Laws of the the US. What makes this country great is the enforcement of our laws.
This is the greatest news I’ve heard in quite some time. America is still a sovereign county, at least for a couple more years. Way to go Texas.
THIS IS GOOD NEWS… I heard it on the NEWS tonight, I didn’t even know it was going on.. OR I had forgotten. NOW if we can get our Elected Officials to BUILD the FENCE, before they outnumber us, …. I can dream can’t I ???
Seems like Bush favors the rights of murders instead of thos ewho try to protect America; why won’t he go as far to help Compean & Ramos.
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[...] Edward Lazarus has this commentary on Findlaw which outlines the positions of the various justices in the recent Medellin ruling. Related post. [...]