From: matt@smoke.brl.mil (Matthew Rosenblatt)
Newsgroups: misc.legal
Subject: Re: Noriega Trial Implications
Summary: How the Long Arm statute works.
Keywords: Long Arm
Date: 15 Apr 92 13:55:06 GMT
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.

In article <TT.92Apr15143953@romulus.jyu.fi> tt@romulus.jyu.fi 
(Tapani Tarvainen) writes:

>In article <18481@smoke.brl.mil> matt@smoke.brl.mil (Matthew Rosenblatt) 
writes:

>>Let some con man set up a "boiler room" in Florida, and sell nonexistent
>>or underwater land over the 'phone to Maryland residents.  See how fast
>>the Maryland Attorney General will sue the con man under the Maryland
>>"long arm" statute.   [Matt Rosenblatt]

>How will the con man be brought to Maryland to face trial?
>[Tapani Tarvainen]

He does not have to be brought to Maryland.

>I presume there either is an agreement between Maryland and Florida
>or a federal law to the effect that Florida police will arrest and
>take him to Maryland, or one that allows Maryland police to arrest
>him in Florida -- is that correct?  [Tapani Tarvainen]

When I mentioned the Maryland "long arm" statute, I wrote, "That's
a civil-suit statute."  No one has to arrest anyone.  Rather, the
lawsuit is tried in Maryland whether the defendant shows up there
or not.  If the plaintiff -- in my hypothetical case, the Maryland
Attorney General -- wins, he is awarded damages on behalf of the
Maryland victims of the con man.  Once the amount of the damages
has been reduced to a judgment, the Attorney General can take that
judgment to the Florida courts.  The Florida courts must enforce
it, because Section 1 of Article IV of the United States Constitution
declares that "Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each STate
to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every 
other State."  That means that the Florida courts will go after
the con man and get the money from him.

The problem in a case like Noriega's is that General Noriega was
the dictator of Panama.  The entire Panamanian government, including
its court system, was subject to him.  There was no way he could have
been brought to justice by following the sort of procedures outlined
above.  So the United States Government was faced with two choices:

   (1)  Let General Noriega get away with smuggling drugs
        into our country to poison our kids; or

   (2)  Go into Panama and arrest him and bring him to Florida
        to be tried for his crimes.

Assuming that the jury found correctly, and that General Noriega was
guilty, why should the United States have let him get away with it?

>What if any are the requirements
>for that to happen: in particular, does the act in question have to
>be a crime under Florida or federal law, too?   [Tapani Tarvainen]

Again, the "long arm" statute deals with civil suits, not with crimes.
For crimes, Section 2 of the same Article IV provides that "A Person
charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall
flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of
the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered
up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime."

This assumes a government in the other State to which *all* its citizens
are subject, not a government run by a dictator who is "above the law."
There is no problem with assuming such a government for an American State,
because Section 4 of Article IV of the  Constitution requires the United
States to "guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of
Government."  But we cannot assume such a government for foreign countries,
which from time to time come under the rule of tyrants, despots, and
dictators.  It is to handle such cases that Article I, Section 8 of 
the Constitution gives Congress the Power "To raise and support Armies," 
and "To provide and maintain a Navy."

					-- Matt Rosenblatt
                                        (matt@amsaa.brl.mil)

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