The International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ highest, has unanimously ruled that the United States defied its order last year when Texas authorities executed Jose Medellin, a Mexican convicted of rape and murder. The court said the U.S. remained obliged to review the cases of about 50 other Mexicans on death row because they were denied access to their consulate after their arrest. The case hinges on the spotty compliance by U.S. state and local authorities with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which provides that arrested aliens have access to diplomats from their home country and which the U.S. ratified in 1969.

Former President George W. Bush directed the states to comply with the world court's ruling, but Texas argued that neither that court nor the president could override the decisions of its state courts. Last March the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the president lacked authority to intervene in state criminal proceedings. AARO joined an amicus curiae brief in that case, pointing out that U.S. citizens abroad could be jeopardized if other countries also refused them access to their consular officials.