Prof. Olson writes: > There is a US Supreme Court case from the 1950's that says that the Bill > of Rights trumps ALL of the original Constitution, including the treaty > clause. I think it is Reid v. Covert. ...
An amendment necessarily trumps the amended document (which then becomes "the document-as-amended". Is it clear that an amendment limits the effect of a ratified treaty? Article II Section 2 - "[The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur;" doesn't really say. I've heard many times that the treaty trumps the Constitution. So I looked for more information - the first reference I read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reid_v._Covert is interesting. So I went on and read a bit more: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0354_0001_ZS.html and it's not clear to me that the decision was so broad since it is only about a military case. The decision does say, "This Court has regularly and uniformly recognized the supremacy of the Constitution over a treaty." That's clear, but then the decision weasels, "We recognize that executive agreements are involved here, but it cannot be contended that such an agreement rises to greater stature than a treaty." in a footnote. http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0354_0001_ZO.html After all this, I'm a bit confused as to whether a ratified Treaty dominates or is subordinate to the US Constitution. I'm not helped by Article VI, clause 2, "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land;" in which Treaties are mentioned - and the order of mention might, or might not, indicate precedence in case of a conflict. -- --henry schaffer _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
