Supreme Court Hears Arguments Over Foreigners' Rights in U.S.

By LINDA GREENHOUSE
Published: March 30, 2006

WASHINGTON, March 29 — The question before the Supreme Court on Wednesday was whether an international treaty that protects people embroiled in another country's criminal justice system gives foreign citizens any specific rights they can assert in American courts.

There was no dispute that authorities in Oregon and Virginia violated the treaty, the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, in the two cases that were before the court in a single extended argument.

Article 36 of the treaty, which the United States ratified in 1969, gives people who are arrested and detained in a foreign country a right known as consular notification, which dictates that they be informed that at their request their country's diplomats will be notified and made available to advise them.

Neither Moises Sanchez-Llamas, a Mexican who was convicted of attempted murder in Oregon for shooting a police officer, nor Mario A. Bustillo, a Honduran convicted of a gang-related murder in Springfield, Va., a Washington suburb, received the required notice at the time of their arrests. <snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/30/politics/30scotus.html?_r=1&oref=slogin