High Court to Consider Arrests Abroad
Alien Tort Act Used in War on Terrorism, Suits for Damages in Human Rights Cases
By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 2, 2003; Page A10
The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will consider whether U.S. law permits the federal government to track down alleged criminals or terrorists and arrest them abroad, with or without the other country's consent.
The court said it will review a federal appeals court's decision earlier this year that upheld a damages award to a Mexican national who was seized in Mexico at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's behest and delivered to the United States to stand trial on drug-related murder charges.
The court's decision escalates the justices' involvement in the legal controversies swirling around the U.S. war on terrorism and could produce a historic decision on the allocation of overall foreign policy power between the president and the courts.
The court acted in response to a Bush administration request that it intervene in favor of executive power -- in contrast to the court's other recent intervention in the war on terrorism, when it agreed to hear an appeal by suspected terrorists held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in spite of a Bush administration plea to stay out of an area where the executive branch should hold sway.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26725-2003Dec1.html
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