Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor predicts that the U.S. Supreme Court will increasingly base its decisions on international law rather than the U.S. Constitution, according to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
By doing so, the court will make a good impression among people from other countries, she said.
“The impressions we create in this world are important and they can leave their mark,” Justice O’Connor said.
That is one of the most frightening things I have ever read.
Update: The washington times fudged the story. Clayton Cramer has more.
October 30th, 2003 at 2:45 pm
Does that mean that soon the in-laws can burn the wives of their male relatives marry but don’t pony up enough cash and gifts?
Not that i advocate it, but at UT I kept hearing about what a superior society India has to ours.
October 30th, 2003 at 3:23 pm
Calm down people, this is the Washington Times. If they can take something out of context, they will. At no time (that I can see) did O’Connor say that International Law would trump our constitution. She merely said they were more likely to take it into consideration. That by itself doesn’t really raise a red flag, so long as they don’t use it to trump our constitution.
I’d like to see a full transcript of what she actually said, rather than selective quotations.
October 30th, 2003 at 3:53 pm
Ditto what tgirsch said. The quoted comments are insufficient to indicate what she was talking about and what she meant.
October 30th, 2003 at 4:23 pm
I agree it could have been taken out of context and I actually said that on my forum. I didn’t say that on the Blog because I included most of the text from the article and responded to what was printed.
I have looked for a transcript but all I could find was this from ALI (American Law Institute)
http://www.ali.org/ali/R2404_4_Norms.htm
Even out of context I think this is something to be a little concerned about don’t you? Lets assume that everything in the article is true. Are you bothered by it?
October 30th, 2003 at 4:37 pm
And notice that the article continually says she said, the justice said.
And the article from the AJC says basically the same thing.
There’s something there to leave the impression but i wouldn’t mind seeing the transcript myself.
October 30th, 2003 at 4:48 pm
Here it is out of the AJC website.
It says that she said that the U.S. courts should and has TAKEN NOTE OF international rulings when coming to decisions on our own laws, but it DOESN’T SAY that international rulings take precedence over the Constitution or that international rulings are an over-riding part of the courts decisions.
October 30th, 2003 at 4:52 pm
From the AJC:
The U.S. judiciary should pay more attention to international court decisions to help enrich our nation’s standing abroad, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said Tuesday.
And
I suspect,” O’Connor said, “that over time we will rely increasingly, or take notice at least increasingly, on international and foreign courts in examining domestic issues.”
Emphasis added.
October 30th, 2003 at 5:12 pm
Nothing to see here, folks.
Uncle:
I don’t see why even relying on international law is necessarily bad, in cases where the US Constitution and US laws are unclear. If we start seeing cases of International Law contradicting with and trumping the US Constitution, then you’ll have something to talk about.
Until then, the only people who ought to worry about this are the isolationists. I’ll take them seriously when they stop simultaneously trying to push globalization.
October 30th, 2003 at 5:25 pm
The bit about enriching our standing abroad is a bit over-the-top, but you have to look at the audience that she was speaking to (Southern Center for International Studies).
From SU’s excerpt:
“rely…on international and foreign courts in examining domestic issues.”
Let’s face it, many countries have similar provisions in their constitutions as America does and has similar laws. It’s just like SCOTUS looking at State and lower-court rulings. The State courts have to make rulings based on their own set of laws in the state and their own state Constitutions, but that doesn’t take away their possible applicability towards SCOTUS rulings..the international courts are the same in that regard.
Oh and what tgirsch said.
October 30th, 2003 at 5:07 pm
The US Supreme Court and International Law
Via Say Uncle comes this bit of alarmist rhetoric from the Washington Times:Justice Sandra Day O’Connor predicts that the U.S….