WTF -- Bush stays execution of mexican national rapist/murderer in deference to Intnl Court

[nashville_brook]

From Time Magazine: "a very novel assertion of presidential powers"

Bush's Surprising Plea for Clemency

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1669866,00.html?xid=newsletter-weekly

If you tried to come up with the best way to enrage the nativist right in America, you might dream up something like this: a Mexican immigrant, convicted of raping and murdering two adolescent girls, has his execution stayed by President Bush out of deference to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands.

Believe it or not, that's the storyline in the controversial case of Medellin v. Texas, which the Supreme Court will hear on Wednesday. The Administration is siding with Jose Ernesto Medellin and his lawyers, arguing that he along with 50 other Mexican nationals should have their convictions reviewed because, in what the International Court has ruled a violation of a treaty signed by the U.S., they were not offered access to Mexican consular officials after their arrest.

The raucous right is in an uproar, stunned that their onetime hero, George W. Bush, is going against them on a case that combines three of the issues closest to their heart: immigration, the death penalty and international sovereignty. But the real lesson the right wing should take from the case is that the presidential power they so jealously defend when it is used against foreign nationals looks a lot less attractive when it's applied at home.

snip

"It's a jujitsu move of acceding to the International Court of Justice ruling, but aggressively pursuing presidential powers at the same time," says Thomas Goldstein, who heads the Supreme Court practice of the Washington law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld LLP. "The idea is that you can essentially write the states a note and tell them what to do. It's a very novel assertion of presidential powers."

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. It's NOT a "novel assertion of presidential powers". It's fascism

[nashville_brook]

2. euphemisms of the 21st century...

yuk.

[flyarm]

3. they must be realitives of his drug running buddies!!..wtf??..ok kill all the texans..

but save the Medellin family!!

what universe am i in now???????

fly

[nashville_brook]

6. also from the article...

The Administration isn't taking Medellin's side out of sympathy. After all, Bush pushed through more than 150 executions as governor of Texas, and he's generally no fan of international courts. In fact, though the Administration is going along with the court in this particular case, it has also withdrawn from the same international accord at issue in the case. It may not seem consistent, but what Bush is interested in is achieving maximum latitude in determining compliance with international treaties and gaining the right to tell states when they do or don't have to comply with a treaty.

[dflprincess]

4. Covering his butt and sucking up to the ICJ, just in case he finds himself in front of them someday

n/t

[nashville_brook]

5. i think he's (okay, Cheney) found a way to grab more power for the Unitary Executive

it's a twisted approach. very rovian in style.

[nashville_brook]

7. ...

afternoon kick...