Law Commons^™

Medellin And Sanchez-Llamas: Treaties From John Jay To John Roberts, Lori Fisler Damrosch

Faculty Scholarship

Medellin v. Texas and Sanchez-Llamas v. Oregon were the first opportunities for the U.S. Supreme Court to speak in the voice of Chief Justice John Roberts on several of the biggest questions at the connecting points between the U.S. legal order and the rest of the world. In writing for the majority in these cases, the new Chief Justice sent signals to several different audiences about whether and how the United States will fulfill its international obligations. The messages differ markedly from those sent by the divided Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, in which Roberts did not participate. Hamdan was …