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texas - the supreme courts law above the court of justice

Mar 26, 2008
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The supreme court ruled yesterday that US courts are not bound by the international court of justice or by direct orders from the president when it refused to allow a fresh hearing for a Mexican on death row. In a 6-3 decision, the supreme court ruled that courts in Texas were not compelled to comply with a ruling from the ICJ to allow a new hearing for the Mexican inmate because he had not been given access to consular assistance. State courts were also not obliged to follow orders from George Bush who had instructed Texas to comply with the ICJ.

The decision could put the US at odds with EU countries and Mexico which had urged the supreme court to order a new hearing for José Ernesto Medellín. It was also a rebuff for Bush who had been put in the awkward position of trying to shield Medellín, a gang member convicted in 1993 of raping and strangling to death two teenage girls. The intervention was all the more difficult for Bush because Texas is his home state. As governor he signed the death warrant for more than 150 prisoners.

The supreme court decided yesterday that in the Medellín case Bush had overstepped his powers by instructing the Texas courts to comply with the ICJ. In its 2004 ruling on behalf of Medellín and some 50 other Mexican inmates on death row, the ICJ had held Texas in breach of the Vienna convention, which gives prisoners in foreign jails the right to seek assistance from their home country. Medellín and other Mexicans on death row were not given consular access to Mexican diplomats before their trial. [source the guardian]