Posted by Phil Lee (208.19.133.132) on June 29, 2001 at 14:16:
In the Washington Times article ("World Court claims U.S. jurisdiction," 6/28/01, Betsy Pisik) a foreign court claimed jurisdiction over the prosecution in Arizona of a murder. This claim would be laughable were it not part of a continuing assault on the American Constitution that seems to be coming from a variety of directions including the United Nations.
Rather than a vast conspiracy here, it appears that these assaults come from ignorant foreigners being abetted by Americans who should know better. So, let me outline a brief against these foreign ideas that I hope our kinder, gentler conservative President and the media will take. The foreign ideas seem to be that the US government can, through treaties signed, alter the US Constitution and the US national government. In this particular case, the alteration is to the judicial powers of the national government. To counter that notion, let me present the points:
1) The US national government derives its powers from the people.
2) The powers granted by the people to the national government
are defined in the US Constitution.
3) Judicial powers granted in the US Constitution are defined
in its Article III (see http://jim.com/usconsti.htm)
where we have "The judicial power of the United States,
shall be vested in one supreme court, and in such
inferior courts as the Congress may, from time to time, ordain and establish."
4) The International Court of Justice is not that supreme court
defined in the Constitution, and no amendment to the US
Constitution has been approved altering the Constitution
to make it so. Moreover, the US supreme court has reviewed
the case in question.
5) Lest you think that a treaty with one or several foreign states
can alter the relationship defined in the US Constitution by the
people, let me remind you that the US Constitution
prescribes the terms for its alteration in its Article V.
Acts of both legislative bodies of the United
States Congress and by the people in the various states
are required to approve amending the Constitution.
Treaties with the United States require only actions by the US
Senate. The people have not granted power to the US Senate to connive
with foreign princes to alter the US Constitution, so no
treaty purporting to do so is valid (Constitutional).
I hope that the President will pass a message to these foreign princes that they should consult the US Constitution and make their legal appeal to US Courts for remedies in any dispute concerning the operation of the US legal system since they are so woefully ignorant of the relationship between government (servants) and sovereigns (the people) in the United States.