Look to the Constitution

Re “Supreme Court rebuffs Bush,” editorial, March 26

According to The Times, the Supreme Court ruled that President Bush “does not have the ‘unilateral authority’ to force state officials to comply with an international treaty.” Article II of the Constitution charges the president to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” but per Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., “The president’s authority to act, as with the exercise of any governmental power, must stem either from an act of Congress or from the Constitution itself.”

In fact, Article VI includes Senate-ratified treaties as supreme law of the land: “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”

Tom Payne

Riverside