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Page Number: 34

10 

BOND v. UNITED STATES 

SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment 

Surely  it  makes  sense,  the  Government  contends,  that
Congress  would  have  the  power  to  carry  out  the  obliga-
tions to which the President and the Senate have commit-
ted  the  Nation.    The  power  to  “carry  into  Execution”  the 
“Power  . . .  to  make  Treaties,”  it  insists,  has  to  mean  the 
power to execute the treaties themselves.

That  argument,  which  makes  no  pretense  of  resting  on
text,  unsurprisingly  misconstrues  it.  Start  with  the 
phrase  “to  make  Treaties.”    A  treaty  is  a  contract  with  a 
foreign nation made, the Constitution states, by the Presi-
dent  with  the  concurrence  of  “two  thirds  of  the  Senators 
present.”  That  is  true  of  self-executing  and  non-self-
executing  treaties  alike;  the  Constitution  does  not  distin-
guish between the two.  So, because the President and the 
Senate can enter into a non-self-executing compact with a
foreign  nation  but  can  never  by  themselves  (without  the 
House)  give  that  compact  domestic  effect  through  legisla-
tion, the power of the President and the Senate “to make” 
a  Treaty  cannot  possibly  mean  to  “enter  into  a  compact 
with a foreign nation and then give that compact domestic
legal effect.”  We have said in another context that a right
“to make contracts” (a treaty, of course, is a contract) does 
not  “extend  . . .  to  conduct  . . .  after  the  contract  relation 
has  been  established  . . . .    Such  postformation  conduct 
does  not  involve  the  right  to  make  a  contract,  but  rather
implicates  the  performance  of  established  contract  obliga-
tions.”  Patterson  v.  McLean  Credit  Union,  491  U. S.  164, 
177  (1989)  (emphasis  added).    Upon  the  President’s
agreement  and  the  Senate’s  ratification,  a  treaty—no
matter  what  kind—has  been  made  and  is  not  susceptible 
of any more making.

How might Congress have helped “carr[y]” the power to 

—————— 

U. S. 491, 504 (2008), and “can only be enforced pursuant to legislation
to  carry  them  into  effect,”  Whitney  v.  Robertson,  124  U.  S.  190,  194 
(1888).