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You know Southhack, there was a time when anyone and I mean anyone on this forum with the raw nerve to suggest the Constitution is or even should be subservient to treaties with foreign powers would be laughed out of here as a liberal troll, lacking any sort of respect for our national sovereignty.

Since there apparently isn't anyone else left around here to do it, I'll tell you myself - The idea that the Senate has some sort of power to conspire with foreigners to tell Americans how to live and what to do, acting in complete opposition to the very will and sovereignty of the American people, is repugnant to the concept of a free republic.

You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

Don't bother shooting the messenger; it won't change the message.

Forget what you *feel* is repugnant. Concentrate instead upon what is actually law.

Now, if you can show me where the SCOTUS has ever ruled to override a foreign treaty that the U.S. has legally ratified in the Senate, then that would be another thing altogether...

Until then, the Geneva Convention governs how we handle enemy combatants.

You are thinking of:

"Article. VI.

Clause 2:

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..."

I you know how to read commas and semi-colons, you have here the reference to what is very nearly a metaphysical concept ~ that is "the United States" which has "authority", separate and distinct from "This Constitution" and "all Treaties".

We could probably argue all day and into the night on whether or not this clause equates Treaties and the Constitution, or if it makes nothing other than a logical distinction between DOMESTIC AFFAIRS and FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

Typically the way we resolve most of our problems with Treaties is to have Congress pass a piece of "enabling legislation" that recasts everything in our own terms. That way if a court gets hold of a case which seems to have something to do with treaty provisions, the litigants are going to have to first argue their way through American law first. This keeps the Senate and a bunch of foreign guys from stuffing nonsense down our throats.