The Supreme Court ruled Monday the U.S. government may kidnap people from a foreign country and prosecute them over that nation's objection.
By a 6-3 vote, the justices said an extradition treaty between the United States and Mexico does not prohibit U.S. officials from prosecuting a Mexican doctor in the highly publicized torture killings of a U.S. drug agent and the agent's pilot.The court refused to order Dr. Humberto Alvarez-Machain returned to Mexico.
He was charged with using his medical skills to keep Enrique Camarena alive while the Drug Enforcement Administration agent was tortured and interrogated in Mexico in 1985. Also killed was DEA pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar.
In other action, the court ruled:
- States generally may not tax out-of-state businesses on the income they make from selling stock in other companies.
- Federal courts have power to decide some lawsuits stemming from family disputes when the opposing sides are from different states.
- Murder defendants in capital punishment cases are entitled to ask potential jurors whether they automatically would vote for death if the defendants are convicted,
- Debtors who file for bankruptcy may shield pension benefits from their creditors.
In the kidnap case, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, writing for the court, said, the kidnapping may have been "shocking . . . and in violation of general international law principles."
But, he said, it is still up to the Bush administration and not federal judges to decide whether Alvarez-Machain should be returned to Mexico.
The "abduction was not in violation of the extradition treaty between the United States and Mexico," Rehnquist said.
He was joined by Justices Byron R. White, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter and Clarence Thomas.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens, said, "I suspect most courts throughout the civilized world will be deeply disturbed by the monstrous decision the court announces today."
Joining him were Justices Harry A. Blackmun and Sandra Day O'Connor.
The lawyer for deposed Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega, the most prominent U.S. prisoner nabbed overseas, said he was surprised by the ruling.
"I'm shocked. This case I expected to succeed in the Supreme Court," said lead Noriega attorney Frank Rubino.
The case differed from Noriega's in that unlike Mexico, Panama did not protest the 1989 U.S. invasion that led to Noriega's capture, he noted. But he added that the distinction now appears to be meaningless.
"We're disregarding foreign governments now," Rubino said. "This is like the renewal of the Crusades, or the Roman Empire conquering the world."
Alvarez-Machain was abducted from his office in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1990 and forced aboard a plane bound for El Paso, Texas, where he was arrested by U.S. officials and taken to California.
Nineteen persons, including Alvarez-Machain, were charged with taking part in the killings.