U.S. Supreme Court Turns Down Noriega's Geneva Conventions Appeal
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to decide whether former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega may invoke the Geneva Conventions to prevent his extradition to France.
The court turned down the case over the “vigorous dissents” of Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, SCOTUSblog reports. Noriega, who was ousted in a U.S. invasion, has completed a drug sentence in the United States and was fighting his extradition to France on charges of laundering drug proceeds, the Associated Press reports.
A federal judge had declared Noriega a prisoner of war, but the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Geneva Conventions are not enforceable in habeas appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 habeas ruling on the rights of Guantanamo detainees, Boumediene v. Bush, had left unresolved whether individuals in U.S. custody may rely on prisoner-of-war protections in the Geneva Conventions, according to SCOTUSblog.
Thomas wrote the dissent (PDF), joined by Scalia. “It is incumbent upon us to provide what guidance we can on these issues now,” Thomas wrote. “Whatever conclusion we reach, our opinion will help the political branches and the courts discharge their responsibilities over detainee cases, and will spare detainees and the government years of unnecessary litigation. These considerations alone justify review.”
