Just a Thought with Mario Diaz: It’s a Small World After All     5/15/2009 Audio Commentary Listen | Download This week, the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to support Harold Koh's nomination to become the top State Department legal adviser. All freedom loving Americans should be concerned about his nomination and should call their senators (202-224-3121) and urge them to oppose his nomination when it comes to the floor for a full Senate vote. There can be no doubt that Koh's influence at the State Department will have a grave impact on U.S. law and policy for years to come. Koh is a transnationalist. Briefly stated,1 he believes that U.S. courts must look beyond national interest to the "mutual interests of all nations in a smoothly functioning international legal regime."2 Let's get this straight then. According to Koh, U.S. courts should be working for the international community or "regime" as he calls it, not for the people of the United States of America. This begs the question: From where do judges derive their power? All power granted to the courts is given by "we the people" through our Constitution, isn't it? What would you think if you hired someone to paint your portrait and they came to you with a portrait of David Beckham (or the latest international superstar) because they felt it was more in tune with the "mutual interest of all nations"? What? You would probably say, "Hey, you work for me! I'm not paying for that." Koh has already injected his poisonous view in several cases at the Supreme Court level, and he has had some success. He filed an amicus (or "friend of the court") brief in the notorious Lawrence v. Texas3 sodomy decision, citing foreign constitutions, foreign court decisions, and international treatises the United States has not ratified to support his claim. He argued, "Other nations with similar histories, legal systems, and political cultures have already answered these questions. … This Court should pay decent respect to these opinions of humankind." What Koh advocates is an attack on our own foundations. If his influence is allowed to continue to take root in our legal system and our foreign policy, we will cease to be a self-governing nation. It is that simple. Based on his radical views, U.S. foreign policy is likely to become more of a "one-world' policy. You know, the more sophisticated, progressive, humanitarian way of helping "mankind." As the State Department's top legal adviser, Mr. Koh would be in charge of helping set and implement U.S. foreign policy. It would be hard to think of a more influential and dangerous position from which he could advocate his radical views - unless, of course, he was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court (hint, hint ...). End Notes For a fuller explanation of transnationalism see the series by Ed Whelan at the Ethics and Public Policy Center: Harold Koh's Transnationalism, http://www.eppc.org/publications/pubID.3793/pub_detail.asp. Koh, Why Transnational Law Matters, 24 Penn St. Int'l L. Rev. 745, 749-750 (2006). Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003).