Puerto Rico v. Branstad - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Puerto Rico v. Branstad, 483 U.S. 219

Case citation

Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...

(1987), was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

that ruled unanimously that Federal Courts have the power to enforce extraditions

Extradition law in the United States

Extradition law in the United States is the formal process by which a fugitive found in one country or state is surrendered to another country or state for trial or punishment. For foreign countries the process is regulated by treaty and conducted between the Federal Government of the United States...

based on the Extradition Clause of Article Four of the United States Constitution

Article Four of the United States Constitution

Article Four of the United States Constitution relates to the states. The article outlines the duties states have to each other, as well as those the federal government has to the states...

. The decision overruled a prior decision in Kentucky v. Dennison, 24 How. 66 (1861), which had rendered federal courts powerless to order Governors of the different States to fulfill their obligations under the Extradition Clause.

Prior law

The Constitution of the United States contains in its Article IV, Section 2, a clause that reads:

A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.

Congress also legislated the Extradition Act, , which effectively read the same as the Extradition Clause only that it also included Territories, Districts and States.

The U.S. Supreme Court previously held in Kentucky v. Dennison (1861)—issued shortly before the Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

—that the federal courts may not, through the issue of writs of mandamus, compel state governors to surrender fugitives.

Puerto Rico's request

In 1981, Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

native Ronald Calder struck a married couple with his automobile

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

near Aguadilla, Puerto Rico

Aguadilla, Puerto Rico

Aguadilla , founded in 1775 by Luis de Córdova, is a city located in the northwestern tip of Puerto Rico bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, north of Aguada, and Moca and west of Isabela. Aguadilla is spread over 15 wards and Aguadilla Pueblo...

. The husband survived the attack but the wife, who was eight months pregnant, did not. Witnesses testified that Calder, after striking the couple, backed his car two or three times over the victim's body.

Following these events Calder was arrested and charged with first-degree homicide by Puerto Rican authorities and was released after paying a $5,000 bail

Bail

Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail...

. However, Calder did not appear at two preliminary hearings that were scheduled in the Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

District Courts, at which time, he was declared a fugitive of justice. Puerto Rican authorities notified the police authorities in Iowa, having suspicions that he might have fled to his home-state. On April 1981, Calder was surrendered to the police in Polk County, Iowa

Polk County, Iowa

Polk County is a county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 430,640 in the 2010 census, an increase from 374,601 in the 2000 census. The county seat is Des Moines, which is also the capital city of Iowa...

but was released after posting a $20,000 bail set by a District Court Magistrate.

In May 1981, Governor of Puerto Rico

Governor of Puerto Rico

The Governor of Puerto Rico is the Head of Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Since 1948, the Governor has been elected by the people of Puerto Rico...

Carlos Romero Barceló

Carlos Antonio Romero Barceló is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the fifth Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the second governor to be elected from the New Progressive Party and also Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 2001, making him one of the more successful...

submitted to the Governor of Iowa, Robert D. Ray

Robert D. Ray

Robert Dolph Ray served as the 38th Governor of Iowa from January 16, 1969 to January 14, 1983. He served in the United States Army. He received his B.A. in Business from Drake University in 1952 and his Law Degree in 1954...

, a request for extradition. The request for extradition was referred to an extradition hearing, where Calder's counsel testified that "a white American man . . . could not receive a fair trial in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico." Attempts were made to negotiate a reduction in charges against Calder, but these were unsuccessful and in December 1981 Governor Ray wrote to Governor Barceló that in the absence of a "change to a more realistic charge," the request for extradition was denied. A subsequent extradition request made to Governor Ray's successor in office, Governor Terry Branstad, was also denied.

In February 1984, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico filed a petition for a writ of mandamus in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa

United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa has jurisdiction over forty-seven of Iowa's ninety-nine counties. It is subject to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals The United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa (in case citations, S.D. Iowa) has...

that would order Governor Branstad to proceed with the extradition of Ronald Calder. Governor Branstad argued that the Extradition Clause did not apply to Puerto Rico because the Island was not a State of the United States

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

. Furthermore, he claimed Puerto Rico could not invoke the Extradition Act because the Federal Court, under Kentucky v. Dennison, did not have power to order Governors to follow the Extradition Clause or Act. The District Court agreed and dismissed the case. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Eastern District of Arkansas* Western District of Arkansas...

affirmed.

Supreme Court decision

Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991...

delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court which concluded that the precedent established by Kentucky v. Dennison

"...is the product of another time. The conception of the relation between the States and the Federal Government there announced is fundamentally incompatible with more than a century of constitutional development."

It established that Federal Courts do have the power to enforce both the Extradition Clause and the Extradition Act through writs of mandamus.

One argument that arose during the oral argument session was whether the Extradition Clause applied to Puerto Rico, since it is not a State of the Union. Although Justice Marshall, joined by five of his brethren, analyzed Puerto Rico's current political condition as one that gives Puerto Rico certain rights comparable to those of the fifty states, in the end, he applied the Extradition Act, which clearly includes the territories of the United States. Justice O'Connor

Sandra Day O'Connor

Sandra Day O'Connor is an American jurist who was the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as an Associate Justice from 1981 until her retirement from the Court in 2006. O'Connor was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981...

makes note of this fact in her concurrence and did not join the opinion of the Court regarding Puerto Rico's status. Justice Scalia

Antonin Scalia

Antonin Gregory Scalia is an American jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. As the longest-serving justice on the Court, Scalia is the Senior Associate Justice...

also did not join that part, and also brought up the point that

"no party before us has asserted the lack of power of Congress to require extradition from a State to a Territory."

The decision effectively overruled Kentucky v. Dennison and reversed the judgments of the Eighth Circuit and the Southern District of Iowa Federal Courts.

Prior law

Puerto Rico's request

Supreme Court decision

See also

See also