Thursday, July 27, 2006

Bush Administration Response to Hamdan

It looks like the Bush administration has decided to urge Congress to repudiate America's treaty commitments, as determined by America's highest court.

Andrew Sullivan misunderstands the importance of this:

What the administration thinks, of course, is irrelevant. The court has ruled that Article 3 applies.


Unfortunately, while that is true as a matter of international law (the US will continue to be bound by Article 3 and will therefore be violating its international obligations when it violates Article 3), it is not true as a matter of domestic law (if Congress authorizes the violation of a treaty, no court will enforce the treaty.

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