Opinion ID: 603512
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introductory statement

Text: 1 Respondent - appellant - cross - appellee United States of America appeals from a judgment entered in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Ward, J.) granting the habeas corpus petition of petitioner-appellee-cross-appellant Peter G.J. McMullen. The district court granted the petition after finding that the Supplementary Extradition Treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, under which McMullen was detained, violates the constitutional prohibition against bills of attainder as applied to McMullen and we affirmed. See In re Extradition of McMullen, 769 F.Supp. 1278 (S.D.N.Y.1991), aff'd, 953 F.2d 761 (2d Cir.1992). By order dated June 5, 1992, we directed a rehearing in banc of the appeal. 2 The district court rejected McMullen's contentions that the Supplementary Treaty as applied to him is a constitutionally forbidden ex post facto law; that the Treaty contravenes the doctrine of separation of powers by unlawfully encroaching upon the authority of the judicial branch; and that the government violated his due process rights by abusing its power in the course of the proceedings brought against him. The district court found it unnecessary, in light of its disposition of the case, to pass upon the due process violation claims: that the government intentionally delayed McMullen's departure and that it coerced incriminating statements from him. The district court held that these claims could not be decided without an evidentiary hearing in any event. 3 Of the issues resolved against him in the district court, McMullen presses on his cross appeal only his separation of powers contention. We reject that contention and therefore affirm as to the cross appeal. We think that the district court erred in classifying the Supplementary Treaty as a prohibited bill of attainder, however, and therefore reverse on the government's appeal. We remand the case to the district court for resolution of the due process issues that remain unresolved. 4