#836 Treaty Treatment

A disturbing thing happened recently and it has me wondering.
First a little boring history. If you remember from high school civics, our beloved Constitution was not the first document out of the box to help our struggling revolutionaries to a state of nationhood.
For quite a while, we were a nation of statehoods. Even today, the matter is a constant bone of contention. There are those who see states’ rights as a safeguard against an over-powerful federal government stepping on the little guy. Actually the safeguard usually results in states protecting their own institutional rights and budgets, but never mind.
The Articles of the Confederation, that first document of which I spoke, helped to coalesce the loose conglomeration of competing states. One of its many weaknesses was in the field of international trade and diplomacy. If Massachusetts made a treaty with Russia, Georgia didn’t have to follow suit, and so on.
Our international reputation suffered a lot of strain because of unequal tariffs and what not. The Constitution was supposed to fix all this.
Or so I believed at about the time I nodded off from my high school teacher’s droning lecture.
Well, I just read an article that totally woke me up. Seems a Mexican national was tried and convicted in Texas for the brutal slaying of two teenage girls.
He was recently executed. An international court was appalled, because the individual was denied access to his consulate, as per international treaty. US lawyers argued that the treaty did not bind Texas, or any individual states.
“Wait,” you say, “What about the Constitution?”
Well here’s the deal, the US Supreme Court agreed. The guy was executed forthwith.
This is the same Supreme Court that says those same sacrosanct states’ medical marijuana, assisted dying, and gay marriage statutes are trumped by the federal government.
But treaties? Apparently not. If Chris Gregoire wants to undo NAFTA, or ignore salmon fishing agreements with Canada, go for it.
So next time the Mexican state of Chihuahua treats some American rich kid like a dog and throws him in the slammer for 50 years for an ounce of pot, don’t expect too much help from the Mexican Federales.
America, ya gotta love it.