Separation of Powers

The president has a job - his job is to execute laws written by congress. And this president has done this job with much gusto - to date he's vetoed ONE bill, and that was just a couple months ago.

The courts have a job - their job is to rule on issues of law and determine if the issues of law are lawful or unlawful, legal or illegal, constitutional or unconstitutional.

a couple hundred years ago, one of the presidents asked the court whether a certain course of action would be appropriate. The Court refused to answer, because the Court does not have advisory power to the president. This was a big deal in ConLaw, but now I can't remember the details any more clearly than what I stated above.

Anyway, it appears the current president views his role with the courts somewhat differently. Ironically, the issue at hand stems from the president issuing a memorandum ordering a TX court to apply international law to a case. The TX Court of Criminal Appeals ruled on the matter and determined that the president exceeded his authority in dictating to the court how they should rule on an issue of law. This is a good decision, no matter how you slice it. The separation of powers doctrine is designed to prevent any one branch of government from gaining too much power over the others.

Now the case at issue was an appeal on Ex Parte Medellin. Jose Ernesto Medellin was convicted of the rape and murder of two teenage girls. He appealed the decision in part on grounds that his rights under the Vienna Convention were violated due to the fact that he was never advised of his right to talk to a Mexican consular official after his arrest. This claim may have merit, but there's one small problem - he didn't raise this issue at trial. This is where some knowledge of procedure comes into play - if you don't raise an issue at trial, under most circumstances, you have waived it, and cannot raise it for the first time on appeal. In other words, he is asking to be given something he didn't ask for at trial, which isn't allowed in our trial system. This is a judicial issue; the president has no business getting involved.