Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/13pdf/12-158_6579.pdf
Page Number: 46

Cite as:  572 U. S. ____ (2014) 

5 

THOMAS, J., concurring in judgment 

U. S.-Fr., Arts. I–IV, July 16, 1782, 8 Stat. 614–615, T. S.
No.  831⁄4  (repayment  of  sovereign  debt);  Definitive  Treaty
of Peace, U. S.-Gr. Brit., Art. III, Sept. 3, 1783, 8 Stat. 82, 
T. S. No. 104 (fishery rights in disputed waters); Treaty of
Amity  and  Commerce,  U. S.-Prussia,  Arts.  IV–IX,  Sept. 
10, 1785, 8 Stat. 86–88, T. S. No. 292 (treatment of vessels 
in  a  treaty  partners’  waters);  Convention  Defining  and 
Establishing  the  Functions  and  Privileges  of Consuls  and 
Vice-Consuls,  U. S.-Fr.,  Arts.  I–III,  Nov.  14,  1788,  8  Stat. 
106–108, T. S. No. 84 (privileges and immunities of diplo-
matic  officials);  Treaty  of  Amity  and  Commerce,  U. S.-
Swed., Arts. III–IV, Apr. 3, 1783, 8 Stat. 60, T. S. No. 346 
(rights  of  citizens  of  one  treaty  partner  residing  in  the
territory of the other). 

These  treaties  entered  into  under  the  Articles  of  Con-
federation  would  not  have  suggested  to  the  Framers  that 
granting  a  power  to  “make  Treaties”  included  authoriza-
tion to regulate purely domestic matters.  Whenever these 
treaties affected legal rights within United States territory,
they  addressed  only  rights  that  related  to  foreign  sub-
jects  or  foreign  property.  See,  e.g.,  Treaty  of  Amity  and 
Commerce,  U. S.-Neth.,  Art. IV,  Oct.  8,  1782,  8  Stat.  34 
(affording burial rights “when any subjects or inhabitants
of  either  party  shall  die  in  the  territory  of  the  other”); 
Treaty with the Cherokee, Art. VII, 7 Stat. 19, 2 Kappler, 
supra, at 10 (“If any citizen of the United States . . . shall 
commit a robbery or murder, or other capital crime, on any
Indian, such offender or offenders shall be punished in the 
same  manner  as  if  [the  crime]  had  been  committed  on  a 
citizen  of  the  United  States  . . .”);  Convention  Relative  to
Recaptured  Vessels,  U. S.-Neth.,  Oct.  8,  1782,  8  Stat.  50, 
T. S. No. 250 (“The vessells of either of the two nations re-
captured  by  the  privateers  of  the  other,  shall  be  restored 
to  the  first  proprietor  . . .”).
  Preconstitutional  practice
therefore reflects the use of the treaty-making power only 
for  matters  of  international  intercourse;  that  practice