The White House has ordered state courts to con­sid­er the com­plaints of 51 Mexican for­eign nation­als on death row in the United States. This Executive Order is an abrupt inter­na­tion­al pol­i­cy shift for the Bush admin­is­tra­tion and comes just weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court is sched­uled to con­sid­er what effect U.S. courts should give to a rul­ing in favor of the 51 for­eign nation­als by the United Nations’ high­est tri­bunal, the International Court of Justice at the Hague. The World Court found that the U.S. gov­ern­ment had failed to com­ply with the require­ments of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, and it direct­ed that U.S. courts give the Mexican for­eign nation­al inmates ​“mean­ing­ful review” of their con­vic­tions and sen­tences, with­out apply­ing pro­ce­dur­al default rules to pre­vent con­sid­er­a­tion of the defen­dants’ claims. In his mem­o­ran­dum to the attor­ney gen­er­al, President Bush stat­ed that he had deter­mined ​“that the United States will dis­charge its inter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tions under the deci­sion of the International Court of Justice” and he ordered the state courts to grant review. It is unclear if the Administration’s deci­sion will affect the U.S. Supreme Court’s con­sid­er­a­tion of the case. 

(International Herald Tribune, March 4, 2005). See Foreign Nationals and Supreme Court.
The text of the President’s memo is below:

The White House
February 28 [2005]

MEMORANDUM FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
SUBJECT: Compliance With the International Court of Justice in Avena

The United States is a par­ty to the Vienna Convention on Consular
Relations (the ​“Convention”) and the Convention’s Optional Protocol
Concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes (Optional Protocol),
which gives the International Court of Justice (ICJ) juris­dic­tion to
decide dis­putes con­cern­ing the ​“inter­pre­ta­tion and appli­ca­tion” of the
Convention.

I have deter­mined, pur­suant to the author­i­ty vest­ed in me as President
by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, that the United
States will dis­charge its inter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tions under the deci­sion
of the International Court of Justice in the Case Concerning Avena and
Other Mexican Nationals (Mexico v. United States of America (Avena),
2004 I.C.J. 128 (Mar. 31), by hav­ing State courts give effect to the
deci­sion in accor­dance with gen­er­al prin­ci­ples of comi­ty in cas­es filed
by the 51 Mexican nation­als addressed in that decision. 

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