Right Side of the Rainbow

A man, a foreign national and a gang member, rapes and murders two girls. He’s arrested and Mirandized. He provides a written confession. But local police fail to notify the man’s home country of his detention, as required by the Vienna Convention, a treaty to which the United States was then a signatory.† The man is nevertheless convicted and sentenced to death in state court.

On appeal, the man raises a claim under the Vienna Convention. The state appeals court, viewing the claim as procedurally flawed, affirms the conviction and sentence of death. The man then seeks habeas relief from the federal courts. The federal courts waive him off.

Meanwhile, in a case brought against the United States by the man’s home country, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) holds that the man’s rights under the Vienna Convention have been violated, and orders a review of his conviction and sentence.

President Bush thereupon intervenes. In a memorandum, he directs the state appeals court to do as the ICJ has ordered. The state appeals court tells the president to stick that memorandum in his ear. “Where is the executioner?!,” the state appeals court cries. “Draw him nigh.”

Noting the commotion, the U.S. Supreme Court inquires, “What’s all the fuss?” After hearing from both sides, the Court issues judgment: “Actually, Mr. President, that memorandum does go in your ear.”

Or, as the Washington Post explains it:

The Supreme Court yesterday issued a broad ruling limiting presidential power and the reach of international treaties, saying neither President Bush nor the World Court has the authority to order a Texas court to reopen a death penalty case involving a foreign national.

The justices held 6 to 3 that judgments of the International Court of Justice, as the court is formally known, are not binding on U.S. courts and that Bush’s 2005 executive order that courts in Texas comply anyway does not change that.

† The United States has since withdrawn.