DEAR PRESIDENT QUINN

ACTUAL PORTRAIT, SUBMITTED BY AVALON, OF PRESIDENT QUINN

FROM: SSS
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
TBP Nation

TO: The Honorable James Quinn
President
TBP Nation

Dear Mr. President:

I read with great interest, and great concern, your recent press release to TBP Nation, where you stated, “I favor legalizing drugs and shifting our expenditures towards treatment rather than criminalization.” I am aware that you have some very vocal and strong support for that view among some of your TBP Nation supporters, but as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I hope you find the following of interest.

Article II, Section II of the Constitution states, “(The President) shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senate present concur.”

As you know, under Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, and Reagan, the U.S. has signed three international treaties regarding illicit drugs, all with the consent of the Senate. There are, as of 2005, 180 national signatories to these conventions, which are as follows:

1. The 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. This convention was directed at cannabis, coca, and opiate derivatives, ie. marijuana, cocaine, and heroin.

2. The 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Drugs. This convention was directed at drugs such as amphetamines, barbituates, and LSD. Importantly, this treaty also states that nations have the discretion to substitute “treatment, education, after-care, rehabilitation, and social integration” for criminal penalties directed at drug USERS/ABUSERS.

3. The 1988 Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotic Drugs. This convention strengthened the language in the first two conventions and added controls on precursor chemicals and international money laundering.

Your stated written position on illicit drugs clearly implies that you would not only abrogate those treaties, but also nullify dozens of federal and state laws which have been passed in response to our treaty obligations. That’s going to be a Herculean task, and, according to most legal scholars, one on which you cannot proceed without the consent of the Senate.

Abrogation of treaties by the U.S. is exceedingly rare. Here are the two most famous examples, both of which were abrogation of bilateral, and not international, treaties.

1. In 1798, Congress passed the Act of July 7, which pronounced the U.S. freed and exonerated from the mutual defense treaties signed with France in 1778. At the time, the U.S. and France were in a quasi-war initiated by France when it starting seizing commercial U.S. ships carrying goods bound for Great Britain. When the law was passed, France had seized more than 300 U.S. ships. In Bas v. Tingy, the Supreme Court decided that this was legal since it was akin to a declaration of “public war” against the French Republic, a power granted to only the Congress by the Constitution.

2. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter declared that the 1954 Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty with the Republic of China (Taiwan) was null and void. Carter took this step when diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China were established. Enter Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, who sued Carter on the grounds that he did not obtain Senate consent. In Goldwater v. Carter, the Supreme Court did not rule on the issue, essentially throwing out Goldwater’s suit. The court ruled that the issue was a “political battle” between the Executive and Legislative branches based on the fact that the U.S. Senate never actually voted on the issue. Had the Senate done so and voted not to uphold Carter’s decision to abrogate the treaty, thus triggering a formal dispute between the Executive and Legislative branches, then the issue would have been reviewable by the court.

So there you have it, Mr. President. You may take a constitutional path, which will involve members of the Senate, or you may adopt the attitude of Jimmy Carter and French King Louis XIV, who said, “L’etat, c’est moi” (I am the State).

I remain,

Your most humble servant,
SSS

P.S. Let’s move away from this legal mumbo-jumbo, Mr. President, and cut to the fucking chase.

The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, just ruled that the state of Texas may proceed with the execution of Mexican national Humberto Leal, who was convicted of the 1994 brutal rape and murder of 16 year old Adria Sauceda. Here’s a brief description of what happened. Sauceda was found naked by authorities. A “bloody and broken” stick roughly 15 inches long with a screw at the end of it was also protruding from the girl’s vagina. Leal was high on cocaine the night he killed Sauceda.

I can hardly wait when “legal drugs” generate stories like this from coast to coast. Everyday. Guaranteed. Rest assured, Mr. President, I shall fight you on this issue every step of the way, on the beaches, in the air. I will never give up. I will never surrender.

RECENT PHOTO OF SSS