Supreme Court case pits Bush against Texas

[tetedur]

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/08/america/NA-GEN-US-Mexicans-Death-Penalty.php

President George W. Bush, who presided over 152 executions as governor of Texas, wants to halt the state's execution of a Mexican national for the brutal killing of two teenage girls. Texas wants the death penalty to be carried out.

The case of Jose Ernesto Medellin has become a confusing test of presidential power that the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately will sort out.

The president wants to enforce a decision by the International Court of Justice that found the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexican-born prisoners violated their rights to legal help as outlined in the 1963 Vienna Convention.

That is the same court Bush has since said he plans to ignore if it makes similar decisions affecting state criminal laws.

"The president does not agree with the ICJ's interpretation of the Vienna Convention," the administration said in arguments filed with the court. This time, though, the United States agreed to abide by the international court's decision because ignoring it would harm American interests abroad, the government said....

Ted Cruz, the Texas solicitor general, said the administration's position would "allow the president to set aside any state law the president believes is inconvenient to international comity."...


Medellin's case was rejected by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court agreed to hear his appeal. While it was pending in Washington, Bush issued a memo to his attorney general declaring that state courts must enforce the international court's ruling.

Two weeks after the memo, Bush said the U.S. was withdrawing from an international accord that lets the world court have the final say when citizens claim they were illegally denied access to their diplomats when they are jailed abroad.

The Supreme Court weighed in next, dismissing Medellin's case while state courts reviewed Bush's order. Texas courts again ruled against Medellin, saying Bush overstepped his authority by intruding into the affairs of the independent judiciary.

In April, the Surpeme Court stepped in for a second time, putting Bush and the state he governed on opposite sides and setting up an unusual alliance of interests....


My question is: Is this a case of dictator Bush wanting it both ways and will the Supreme Court twist themselves into knots giving it to him?

I'm so confused....

[tanyev]

1. Another article from Dallas Morning News a few days ago.

WASHINGTON – It is the official, considered position of the state of Texas that President Bush is a constitutionally ignorant power-grabber.

An unusual case that the Supreme Court will hear as it begins its new term features Texas accusing its former chief executive of overstepping his office, by ordering Texas judges to comply with an International Court of Justice ruling involving a condemned killer from Mexico.

"It is, in my judgment, a breathtaking order," the state's chief appeals lawyer, Solicitor General Ted Cruz, said a few days ago as he previewed his arguments for the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group. "This president's exercise of this power is egregiously beyond the bounds of presidential authority."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/washington/columnists/tgillman/stories/DN-texwatch_30nat.ART.State.Edition1.42f82c7.html

[opihimoimoi]

2. Bushie has a diseased Brain which cannot be Trusted in making decisions...after 6 years, need I say

more??

[Toots]

3. I sure wish the International Court would rule the entire Bush* Administration to be criminal

Bush issued a memo to his attorney general declaring that state courts must enforce the international court's ruling.