Court defers stay request in Medellin
on Mar 18, 2005 at 1:21 pm
The Supreme Court on Friday deferred any action on a motion to stay further action by the Justices in Medellin v. Dretke (docket 04-5928), the Mexican national’s challenge under the Vienna Convention on Consular Rights to his Texas conviction for murder. The Court notified attorneys for Jose Ernesto Medellin and the state of Texas that Medellin’s request for a stay will be put over at least until after the Court hears the case on the merits on Monday, March 28.
Medellin’s lawyers had asked for the stay, so that they could file a new habeas challenge in Texas courts, to take advantage of President Bush’s directive to state courts to “give effect” to a World Court ruling that the consular rights of Medellin and 50 other Mexican nationals had been violated by the United States.
By refusing to act now, the Court made it clear that it will proceed to its review of whether Medellin had the right to bring a federal habeas challenge to exploit the World Court decision in his favor. Presumably, the Court found no need to anticipate further action in state courts before it proceeded to rule on the federal questions in the pending case.
The state of Texas has sought to cast doubt on the President’s authority to require state courts to reopen the Mexicans’ cases, even though those cases are now considered closed under state procedural rules.
The Court on Friday did not issue an order regarding its deferral of the stay motion; the word was simply passed to counsel.
