SUPREME COURT CASE PREVIEWS DAMAGE OF LOST!
Bill Haymin
October 14, 2007
By Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum
eagle@eagleforum.org
Tell Your Senator to vote NO on the Law of the Sea Treaty!!
Just this week, the United States Supreme Court gave us an important look into what kind of global power grabs we face if the Senate ratifies the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST). On October 10, the Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Jose Medellin, an illegal alien rapist-murderer now on death row in Texas. Medellin, a citizen of Mexico who lived illegally in the United States, was convicted and sentenced to death after he confessed in 1993 to the brutal rape and murder of two teenage girls in Houston.
Long after Medellin had received the full due process of the American legal system, in 2003 the Mexican government sued the United States in the International Court of Justice (known as the "World Court"), an agency of the United Nations which sits at The Hague in The Netherlands.
In 2004 the World Court ruled in favor of Mexico and ordered the United States to give Medellin another hearing, or perhaps another trial, at which he could receive the assistance of Mexican consular employees.
A 1963 treaty known as the Vienna Convention, which both the United States and Mexico have signed and ratified, provides that aliens who are accused of crimes in a foreign country are entitled to request the assistance of consular officials of their home country. Medellin never requested such assistance until long after he was tried, convicted and sentenced, and after all his appeals were denied.
Of course, Medellin did receive the assistance of competent American legal defense lawyers throughout the process, and there is no reason to think that the presence of a Mexican consul could have made any difference in the outcome.
Incredibly, the Bush Administration has knuckled under to the World Court and tried to order the Texas courts to give Medellin another hearing. The Texas courts properly refused to honor this unconstitutional interference, and the Texas decision was upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
This case shows why the U.S. Senate should not agree to diminish American sovereignty by ratifying another UN treaty called the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST).
LOST would be a form of world government with power to decide all matters relating to the two-thirds of the earth's surface covered by the oceans. All disputes arising from man's use of the sea would be heard and decided by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, a 21-member international court that sits in Hamburg, Germany. There is no appeal from that court, which has the power to disregard or override U.S. laws and even the U.S. Constitution.
President Ronald Reagan opposed the treaty because it would erode U.S. sovereignty. Read more about that here: Another U.N. Power Grab by William P. Clark and Edwin Meese .
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee could vote on LOST any time! Tell your Senators to reject this give-away of our sovereignty and to vote NO on ratification!
Members of the Foreign Relations Committee: Biden, Boxer, Cardin, Casey, Coleman, Corker, DeMint, Dodd, Feingold, Hagel, Isakson, Kerry, Lugar, Menendez, Murkowski, Nelson (FL), Obama, Sununu, Vitter, Voinovich, Webb
Call Your Senators Today!
Capitol Switchboard: (202)-224-3121
Further Reading: Law of the Sea
Eagle Forum
PO Box 618
Alton, IL 62002
618-462-5415
Reprinted by permission
Presented by Bill Haymin, 2007
eagle@eagleforum.org
Tell Your Senator to vote NO on the Law of the Sea Treaty!!
Just this week, the United States Supreme Court gave us an important look into what kind of global power grabs we face if the Senate ratifies the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST). On October 10, the Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Jose Medellin, an illegal alien rapist-murderer now on death row in Texas. Medellin, a citizen of Mexico who lived illegally in the United States, was convicted and sentenced to death after he confessed in 1993 to the brutal rape and murder of two teenage girls in Houston.
Long after Medellin had received the full due process of the American legal system, in 2003 the Mexican government sued the United States in the International Court of Justice (known as the "World Court"), an agency of the United Nations which sits at The Hague in The Netherlands.
In 2004 the World Court ruled in favor of Mexico and ordered the United States to give Medellin another hearing, or perhaps another trial, at which he could receive the assistance of Mexican consular employees.
A 1963 treaty known as the Vienna Convention, which both the United States and Mexico have signed and ratified, provides that aliens who are accused of crimes in a foreign country are entitled to request the assistance of consular officials of their home country. Medellin never requested such assistance until long after he was tried, convicted and sentenced, and after all his appeals were denied.
Of course, Medellin did receive the assistance of competent American legal defense lawyers throughout the process, and there is no reason to think that the presence of a Mexican consul could have made any difference in the outcome.
Incredibly, the Bush Administration has knuckled under to the World Court and tried to order the Texas courts to give Medellin another hearing. The Texas courts properly refused to honor this unconstitutional interference, and the Texas decision was upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
This case shows why the U.S. Senate should not agree to diminish American sovereignty by ratifying another UN treaty called the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST).
LOST would be a form of world government with power to decide all matters relating to the two-thirds of the earth's surface covered by the oceans. All disputes arising from man's use of the sea would be heard and decided by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, a 21-member international court that sits in Hamburg, Germany. There is no appeal from that court, which has the power to disregard or override U.S. laws and even the U.S. Constitution.
President Ronald Reagan opposed the treaty because it would erode U.S. sovereignty. Read more about that here: Another U.N. Power Grab by William P. Clark and Edwin Meese .
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee could vote on LOST any time! Tell your Senators to reject this give-away of our sovereignty and to vote NO on ratification!
Members of the Foreign Relations Committee: Biden, Boxer, Cardin, Casey, Coleman, Corker, DeMint, Dodd, Feingold, Hagel, Isakson, Kerry, Lugar, Menendez, Murkowski, Nelson (FL), Obama, Sununu, Vitter, Voinovich, Webb
Call Your Senators Today!
Capitol Switchboard: (202)-224-3121
Further Reading: Law of the Sea
Eagle Forum
PO Box 618
Alton, IL 62002
618-462-5415
Reprinted by permission
Presented by Bill Haymin, 2007
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