High Court Rejects Bush Assertion on U.S. Treaties The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday on a case that mixed presidential power, international relations and the death penalty. The justices said President Bush overstepped his authority when he tried to order Texas to reopen the case of a Mexican on death row for rape and murder.

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High Court Rejects Bush Assertion on U.S. Treaties

High Court Rejects Bush Assertion on U.S. Treaties

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The Supreme Court justices by a 6-3 vote said Tuesday that President Bush overstepped his authority when he tried to order Texas to reopen the case of a Mexican man on death row for rape and murder.

An international court had ordered President Bush to tell the states to review cases of some foreign defendants who were denied the right to contact their embassies when they were arrested. That was a right the United States had agreed to, and in fact insisted on, when negotiating a treaty. But now the justices say the president's executive power does not give him the authority to intervene in those state criminal cases.