Opinion ID: 3000311
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Individual Rights under the Treaty

Text: When the United States Senate gave its advice and consent to the ratification of the Vienna Convention in 1969, 115 Cong. 30997 (by a vote of 81 to 0), the Convention became the “supreme Law of the Land,” binding on the states. U.S. Const., art. VI, cl. 2; see Whitney v. Robertson, 124 U.S. 190, 194 (1888) (“By the constitution, a treaty is placed on the same footing, and made of like obligation, with an act of legislation.”); Breard v. Greene, 523 U.S. 371, 376 (1998) (per curiam) (stating that treaties are “on a full parity” with acts of Congress) (citing Reid v. Covert, 354 U.S. 1, 18 (1957) (plurality opinion)). The Supreme Court has recognized that treaties, which are basically agreements among sovereign nations, may provide for individual rights. United States v. Rauscher, 119 U.S. 407 (1886) (holding that the provisions of an extradition treaty, permitting prosecution only for the crime on which extradition was based, could serve as a defense to the attempted prosecution of another crime); United States v. Alvarez-Machain, 504 U.S. 655, 664-70 (1992) (Alvarez-Machain I) (considering whether Alvarez’s abduction violated the terms of an extradition treaty between the United States and Mexico); Head Money Cases, 112 U.S. at 598 (stating that “a treaty may also contain provisions which confer certain rights upon the citizens or subjects of one of the nations” that “partake of the nature of municipal law, and which are capable of 16 No. 01-1657 enforcement as between private parties in the courts of the country”). In the case of the Vienna Convention, the Supreme Court has said, without finally deciding the point, that Article 36 “arguably confers on an individual the right to consular assistance following arrest.” Breard v. Greene, 523 U.S. at 376; see also Sanchez-Llamas, 126 S.Ct. at 2677-78 (assuming, without deciding, that the Convention creates judicially enforceable rights). In Breard v. Greene, the Court faced facts that have become commonplace in Vienna Convention cases: a criminal defendant who was trying to use federal habeas corpus or other criminal proceedings to seek a remedy for a Convention violation based in the criminal law. 523 U.S. at 377 (finding that Breard had procedurally defaulted his Vienna Convention claim on habeas corpus review by failing to raise it in state court). On analogous facts, this court and most of our sister circuits have refrained from deciding whether an individual right exists under the Vienna Convention; instead, most have concluded that the various remedies available to criminal defendants, such as the quashing of an indictment or the exclusionary rule, are not appropriate cures for a violation. See Li, 206 F.3d at 60 (1st Cir.) (en banc) (“We hold that irrespective of whether or not the treaties create individual rights to consular notification, the appropriate remedies do not include suppression of evidence or dismissal of the indictment.”); United States v. De La Pava, 268 F.3d 157, 165 (2d Cir. 2001) (“Even if we assume arguendo that De La Pava had judicially enforceable rights under the Vienna Convention—a position we do not adopt—the Government’s failure to comply with the consular notification provision is not grounds for dismissal of the indictment.”); Murphy v. Netherland, 116 F.3d 97, 100 (4th Cir. 1997) (finding that “even if the No. 01-1657 17 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations could be said to create individual rights” the defendant could not obtain habeas relief because his claim was procedurally defaulted); United States v. Page, 232 F.3d 536, 540 (6th Cir. 2000) (concluding that “although some judicial remedies may exist, there is no right in a criminal prosecution to have evidence excluded or an indictment dismissed due to a violation of Article 36”); United States v. Chaparro-Alcantara, 226 F.3d 616, 621 (7th Cir. 2000) (“It is sufficient for present purposes to assume that such an individual right is created by the Convention and to confront squarely whether the exclusionary rule is the appropriate sanction for a violation of that right.”); United States v. Lawal, 231 F.3d 1045, 1048 (7th Cir. 2000) (same); United States v. Ortiz, 315 F.3d 873, 886 (8th Cir. 2002) (“Even if we assume for present purposes that the Convention creates an individually enforceable right, it would not follow, on this record, that the statements should be excluded merely because the Convention has been violated.”); United States v. Lombera-Camorlinga, 206 F.3d 882, 885 (9th Cir. 2000) (en banc) (declining to decide whether Article 36 creates an individually enforceable right but concluding that suppression of evidence is an inappropriate remedy); United States v. Minjares-Alvarez, 264 F.3d 980, 986-87 (10th Cir. 2001) (declining to decide whether the Vienna Convention creates individually enforceable rights, but concluding that suppression is not an appropriate remedy); United States v. Duarte-Acero, 296 F.3d 1277, 1282 (11th Cir. 2002) (holding that a violation of the Vienna Convention does not warrant dismissal of an indictment); United States v. Cordoba-Mosquera, 212 F.3d 1194, 1196 (11th Cir. 2000) (per curiam) (same). Two circuits have found, in the context of a criminal proceeding, that the treaty does not confer individual rights. United States v. Jimenez-Nava, 243 F.3d 192, 197-98 (5th Cir. 2001); United States v. Emuegbunam, 268 F.3d 377, 391-94 (6th Cir. 2001). 18 No. 01-1657 This court is the first one to be confronted directly with the question whether the Convention creates a private right. Lombera-Camorlinga, 206 F.3d at 888 (noting that the court did “not decide whether a violation of Article 36 may be redressable by more common judicial remedies such as damages . . . ”). The distinction between a private right, on the one hand, and various remedial measures that affect criminal prosecutions, on the other, is an important one, as the Supreme Court reiterated in Hudson v. Michigan, supra. The literature exploring the possibility of deterring unlawful police behavior through damages actions under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 or Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), makes the same point. See, e.g., Harold J. Krent, How to Move Beyond the Exclusionary Rule: Structuring Judicial Response to Legislative Reform Efforts, 26 Pepp. L. Rev. 855 (1999); L. Timothy Perrin, et al., If It’s Broken, Fix It: Moving Beyond the Exclusionary Rule, 83 Iowa L. Rev. 669 (1998); Walter E. Dellinger, Of Rights and Remedies: The Constitution as a Sword, 85 Harv. L. Rev. 1532 (1972). Our consideration here of the question whether the Convention creates private rights is therefore in no way inconsistent with our conclusion in Chaparro-Alcantara, supra, that the exclusionary rule is not an available remedy for violations of the Vienna Convention. As the Supreme Court in Gonzaga University counseled, we begin our inquiry with the text of Article 36. See 536 U.S. at 283-84. “In construing a treaty, as in construing a statute, we first look to its terms to determine its meaning.” Alvarez-Machain I, 504 U.S. at 663; Sumitomo Shoji America, Inc. v. Avagliano, 457 U.S. 176, 180 (1982) (“Interpretation of [the Treaty] . . . must, of course, begin with the language of the Treaty itself [, and] [t]he clear import of Treaty language controls . . . .”); see also Vienna No. 01-1657 19 Convention on the Law of Treaties (Treaty Convention), May 23, 1969, art. 26, 1155 U.N.T.S. 331, 339 (governing the interpretation of treaties and directing courts to look first to the plain language of a treaty when attempting to determine its meaning). Article 36 ¶ 1(b) states, plainly enough, that authorities “shall inform the person concerned without delay of his rights under this subparagraph.” (Emphasis added). Justice O’Connor, noting this language, has observed that, “if a statute were to provide, for example, that arresting authorities ‘shall inform a detained person without delay of his right to counsel,’ I question whether more would be required before a defendant could invoke that statute to complain in court if he had not been so informed.” Medellin v. Dretke, 544 U.S. 660, 687 (2005) (O’Connor, J., dissenting from dismissal of writ of certiorari as improvidently granted). A number of judges have noted that “the text emphasizes that the right of consular notice and assistance is the citizen’s” and that this language is “mandatory and unequivocal.” Breard v. Pruett, 134 F.3d 615, 622 (Butzner, S.J., concurring); see Li, 206 F.3d at 72 (Torruella, C.J., concurring in part, dissenting in part) (“I have some difficulty envisioning how it is possible to frame language that more unequivocally establishes that the protections of Article 36(1)(b) belong to the individual national, and that the failure to promptly notify him/her of these rights constitutes a violation of these entitlements by the detaining authority.”); United States v. Hongla-Yamche, 55 F.Supp. 2d 74, 77 (D.Mass. 1999) (“The language of Article 36 clearly refers to the existence of an individual right.”). In our view, this text satisfies the strict test of clarity that the Supreme Court set forth in Gonzaga University. Faced with its unambiguous language, the defendants attempt to introduce doubt by looking at the Convention’s Preamble, which we reproduced above. They place special weight on the fifth paragraph of the preamble, which says: 20 No. 01-1657 “Realizing that the purpose of such privileges and immunities is not to benefit individuals but to ensure the efficient performance of the functions by consular posts on behalf of their respective States . . . .” Vienna Convention, pmbl. (emphasis added). That statement is a perfectly good reflection of almost every other article of the Convention. It does not, however, describe Article 36. Indeed, there is little reason to think that it has any application at all to Article 36. We are inclined to agree with Jogi that the most reasonable understanding of this language is as a way of emphasizing that the Convention is not designed to benefit diplomats in their individual capacity, but rather to protect them in their official capacity. See United States v. Rodrígues, 68 F.Supp. 2d 178, 182 (E.D.N.Y. 1999) (“[I]t appears that the purpose of [the Preamble] is not to restrict the individual notification rights of foreign nationals, but to make clear that the Convention’s purpose is to ensure the smooth functioning of consular posts in general, not to provide special treatment for individual consular officials.”); Kadish, supra, 18 Mich. J. Int’l L. at 594 (“The privileges and immunities granted in the Vienna Convention are to enable the consul to perform his enumerated functions, not to benefit the consul personally. Thus, the preamble language refers to the individual consul, not individual foreign nationals.”). Whether or not we are reading the Preamble correctly, there is a broader principle at stake. It is a mistake to allow general language of a preamble to create an ambiguity in specific statutory or treaty text where none exists. Courts should look to materials like preambles and titles only if the text of the instrument is ambiguous. See, e.g., Whitman v. American Trucking Assns., Inc., 531 U.S. 457, 483 (2001) (inappropriate to look at title of section to create ambiguity if text is clear; the clear text “eliminates the interpretive role of the title, which may only shed light on some ambiguous word or phrase in the statute No. 01-1657 21 itself ”); City of Erie v. Pap’s A.M., 529 U.S. 277, 290-91 (2000) (rejecting language of preamble of local ordinance as definitive for First Amendment challenge); Fidelity Federal Sav. & Loan Assn. v. de la Cuesta, 458 U.S. 141, 158 n. 13 (1982) (look to the preamble only for the administrative construction of the regulation, to which deference is due). See generally 2A Sutherland, Statutes and Statutory Construction § 47.04, at 146 (5th ed. 1992, Norman Singer ed.) (“The preamble cannot control the enacting part of the statute in cases where the enacting part is expressed in clear, unambiguous terms.”). In United States v. Stuart, 489 U.S. 353 (1989), the Supreme Court stated that “a treaty should generally be construe[d] . . . liberally to give effect to the purpose which animates it and that [e]ven where a provision of a treaty fairly admits of two constructions, one restricting, the other enlarging, rights which may be claimed under it, the more liberal interpretation is to be preferred.” Id. at 368 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted); see Asakura v. City of Seattle, 265 U.S. 332, 342 (1924) (“Treaties are to be construed in a broad and liberal spirit, and, when two constructions are possible, one restrictive of rights that may be claimed under it and the other favorable to them, the latter is to be preferred.”). We conclude that even though many if not most parts of the Vienna Convention address only state-to-state matters, Article 36 confers individual rights on detained nationals. Although international treaties as a rule do not create individual rights, see Chaparro-Alcantara, 226 F.3d at 620-21, Sosa recognizes that international law in general, and thus treaties in particular, occasionally do so, see 124 S.Ct. at 2756. Although two of our sister circuits have issued opinions in which they apparently reject this conclusion, two considerations persuade us that we should not follow their lead: first, they were both addressing the specific argument that Article 36 22 No. 01-1657 provided some kind of shield against criminal enforcement—a position that we too have rejected—and second, these decisions both predated Sosa. See Jimenez-Nava, 243 F.3d at 198; Emuegbunam, 268 F.3d at 394. Both the Fifth and the Sixth Circuits relied on the language of the Preamble, the fact that the State Department in a litigation context has taken the position that the Vienna Convention does not create individual rights, and the presumption against implied rights of action, in reaching their conclusions. We have already explained why we do not regard the Preamble as something capable of creating ambiguity in the otherwise plain language of Article 36. The negotiation history of Article 36 is filled with concern about the question of individual rights. For example, as the Standt court recalled: [A] proposed amendment by Venezuela that would have eliminated the individual right of consular communication was withdrawn after it received strong opposition from other member states. 2 United Nations Conference on Consular Relations: Official Records [“Official Records”], at 37, 38, 84, 85, 331-34, U.N. Doc. A/Conf. 2 5/6, U.N. Sales No. 63.X.2 (1963). 153 F.Supp. 2d at 425-26. The United States itself proposed language intended to “protect the rights of the national concerned.” Official Records at 337; see Li, 206 F.3d at 73-74 (Torruella, C.J., concurring in part, dissenting in part). It is also revealing that the regulations issued by the Department of Justice and (now) the Department of Homeland Security that address the subject of consular notification highlight the right of the individual alien to notification. See 28 C.F.R. § 50.5 (DOJ); 8 C.F.R. § 236.1(e) (DHS). The regulations in fact draw an interesting distinction between notifications: under the DOJ regulation, § 50.5(a)(1), the alien has the right to request the authoriNo. 01-1657 23 ties not to notify his or her home country, unless some other treaty takes that right away from him or her; the DHS regulation also acknowledges that particular treaties may require notification. By careful design, as the travaux preparatoires reveal, Article 36 of the Vienna Convention was worded in a way to ensure that only “if [the alien] so requests” would the receiving authorities of the state that had him in custody notify his home country’s consular post. This indicates that the right conferred by Article 36 belongs to the individual, not to the respective governments. The State Department sends regular notices to state and local officials reminding them of their notification obligations under the treaty. Kadish, supra, 18 Mich. J. Int’l L. at 599 & nn. 211-14 (citing Breard v. Netherland, 949 F.Supp. 1255 (E.D. Va. 1996)). The Foreign Affairs Manual issued by the State Department says that “Article 36 of the Vienna Consular Convention provides that the host government must notify the arrestee without delay of the arrestee’s right to communicate with the American consul.” (Emphasis added). Courts have observed that the United States has repeatedly invoked Article 36 on behalf of American citizens detained abroad who have not been granted the right of consular access. United States v. Superville, 40 F.Supp. 2d 672, 676 & n.3 (D.V.I. 1999) (noting United States interventions in Iran in 1979 and Nicaragua in 1986); see Gregory Dean Gisvold, Strangers in a Strange Land: Assessing the Fate of Foreign Nationals Arrested in the United States by State and Local Authorities, 78 Minn. L. Rev. 771, 792-94 (1994). We conclude, for all these reasons, that Article 36 of the Vienna Convention by its terms grants private rights to an identifiable class of persons—aliens from countries that are parties to the Convention who are in the United States—and that its text is phrased in terms of the persons 24 No. 01-1657 benefitted. We thus turn to the final question, which is whether § 1983 furnishes a remedy to Jogi and other such aliens.