Opinion ID: 1770805
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Treaty Clause

Text: We next turn to the constitutional provision relied on by the Fifth District, Article I, Section 10, Clause 1, of the United States Constitution, [8] which prohibits states from entering treaties. See Stepansky, 707 So.2d at 879. According to the Fifth District, the State is unable to prosecute this crime because Florida is constitutionally prohibited from entering into a treaty with the flag state, Liberia. See id. Stepansky asserts this prosecution is prevented by the flag-state rule set forth in the Geneva Convention on the High Seas, Apr. 29, 1958, art. VI, 13 U.S.T. 2313, 2315, 450 U.N.T.S. 82, 86. [9] However, as Stepansky conceded during oral argument, criminal defendants lack standing to raise a violation of an international treaty that is not self-executing. [10] See Skiriotes, 313 U.S. at 76, 61 S.Ct. 924; United States v. Roberts, 1 F.Supp.2d 601, 606 (E.D.La.1998). Article 6 of the Geneva Convention on the High Seas is not a self-executing treaty and does not operate to limit the jurisdiction traditionally asserted by the United States over foreign vessels on the high seas. See United States v. Postal, 589 F.2d 862, 884 (5th Cir.1979); see also Roberts 1 F.Supp.2d at 606. Therefore, the question of whether section 910.006(3)(d) is in violation of this treaty is not properly before this Court. Further, on the merits, the exercise of jurisdiction in this case is not an attempt by the State to enter a treaty. In Skiriotes, the United States Supreme Court rejected the defendant's argument that the State was preempted from exercising extraterritorial jurisdiction because it would encroach upon the exclusive treaty-making power of the United States. 313 U.S. at 71-72, 61 S.Ct. 924. Instead, the Court reasoned that because the United States would have been able to exercise jurisdiction, the question of whether the State could also exercise jurisdiction was one of federal rather than international law. See id. at 75-77, 61 S.Ct. 924. International law is not concerned with the question of whether this defendant is prosecuted by a state or the federal government. [11] As a comment to the Restatement (Third) of Foreign Relations (1986) [hereinafter Restatement], explains: Since international and other foreign relations law are the law of the United States, under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution an exercise of jurisdiction by a State that contravenes the limitations of §§ 402-403 is invalid.... International law normally is not concerned with how authority to exercise jurisdiction is allocated within a state's domestic constitutional order. Whether a State may exercise jurisdiction that the United States is entitled to exercise under international law is, therefore, generally a question only of United States law. Subject to constitutional limitations, a State may exercise jurisdiction on the basis of territoriality, including effects within the territory, and, in some respects at least, on the basis of citizenship, residence, or domicile in the State. Id. at § 402 cmt. k (emphasis supplied). Stepansky does not dispute that the federal government could prosecute him for this crime. See 18 U.S.C. § 7(8) (1994); Roberts, 1 F.Supp.2d at 607-08; United States v. Pizdrint, 983 F.Supp. 1110, 1112-13 (M.D.Fla.1997). Thus, because the United States can exercise jurisdiction in this case, so may the State of Florida as long as the State's actions do not conflict with federal law. See Restatement, supra, § 402 cmt. k. Although Stepansky hypothesizes that the treaty clause would prevent the State from prosecuting a foreign national under Florida's special maritime criminal jurisdiction statute, that scenario is not presented in this case. The general rule is that absent a First Amendment challenge, a person to whom a statute may be constitutionally applied cannot challenge the statute on the ground that it may be unconstitutionally applied to others. Massachusetts v. Oakes, 491 U.S. 576, 581, 109 S.Ct. 2633, 105 L.Ed.2d 493 (1989); see City of Daytona Beach v. Del Percio, 476 So.2d 197, 202 (Fla.1985). This general rule reflects two `cardinal principles' of our constitutional order: the personal nature of constitutional rights and the prudential limitations on constitutional adjudication. Los Angeles Police Dep't v. United Reporting Pub'g Corp., ___ U.S. ___, ___, 120 S.Ct. 483, 489, 145 L.Ed.2d 451 (1999). Therefore, because the exercise of jurisdiction is proper as to Stepansky, who is a United States citizen, the Fifth District's holding that the statute was facially invalid as a violation of article I, section 10, see Stepansky, 707 So.2d at 879, was erroneous.