Opinion ID: 3179594
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Vienna Convention Claim

Text: Although the district court dismissed Mr. Gandy’s first claim on the ground that the Vienna Convention does not confer individually enforceable rights, “we may affirm on any basis supported by the record, even if it requires ruling on arguments not reached by the district court or even presented to us on appeal.” Richison v. Ernest Grp., Inc., 634 F.3d 1123, 1130 (10th Cir. 2011). For the purpose of this appeal, we assume without deciding that the Vienna Convention confers individually enforceable rights and affirm on the ground that Mr. Gandy’s amended complaint failed to state a claim under the provisions he relied upon. See Medellín v. Texas, 552 U.S. 491, 506 n.4 (2008) (assuming without deciding that Article 36 of the Vienna Convention grants foreign nationals certain rights that are individually enforceable); see also United States v. Minjares-Alvarez, 264 F.3d 980, 986 (10th Cir. 2001) (noting that whether the Vienna Convention gives rise to any individually enforceable rights remains an open question and that the Tenth Circuit has declined to address the issue). In arguing that prison officials violated his rights under the Vienna Convention by denying him the right to have unmonitored calls with the Canadian consulate, Mr. Gandy relies exclusively on Article 35, titled, “Freedom of communication.” The amended complaint cited only the first two subsections of the article; the remaining subsections of 6 Article 35 pertain to the consular bag and the consular carrier, and are clearly inapplicable to non-consular officials. Those two subsections provide as follows: (1) The receiving State shall permit and protect freedom of communication on the part of the consular post for all official purposes. In communicating with the Government, the diplomatic missions and other consular posts, wherever situated, of the sending State, the consular post may employ all appropriate means, including diplomatic or consular couriers, diplomatic or consular bags and messages in code or cipher. However, the consular post may install and use a wireless transmitted only with the consent of the receiving State. (2) The official correspondence of the consular post shall be inviolable. Official correspondence means all correspondence relating to the consular post and its functions. 21 U.S.T. 77, 596 U.N.T.S. 261. Interpretation of an international treaty is a question of law we review de novo. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal v. Ashcroft, 389 F.3d 973, 988 (10th Cir. 2004). When interpreting a treaty, we first look to its terms to determine its meaning. Id. These provisions say nothing about allowing foreign nationals to make unmonitored telephone calls from prison to their consulate. Moreover, the amended complaint conceded that Mr. Gandy’s written correspondence with the consulate was “treated in the same manner as correspondence with an attorney or the courts,” Aplt. App. at 47, belying the notion that Mr. Gandy was denied the right to freely communicate with the Canadian consulate. In the absence of express language, we decline to construe the term “freedom of communication” as including a right to unmonitored telephone calls for foreign nationals who are convicted in state court and become state prisoners. Nor are we persuaded by Mr. Gandy’s contention that the prison’s policy violates the requirement 7 under the Vienna Convention that official correspondence with the consular post be inviolable. “Correspondence” is defined as “the communication between persons by an exchange of letters” or “any communication by letter.” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 511 (1976). We therefore conclude this claim was properly dismissed, albeit on different grounds than those relied upon by the district court. See Richison, 634 F.3d at 1130.