E unum pluribus: after Bond v. United States, state law as a gap filler to meet the international obligations of the United States

Today, the United States Supreme Court jurisprudence clearly establishes that Congress had broad almost unfettered power to make treaties, but the concurring opinions in Bond v. United States may foreshadow future limitations on Congress's ability to implement those treaties as part of the domestic law of the United States. Such limits would create a vacuum in the power of the federal government to prescribe its foreign relations. And open, for the first time, an independent space or role for the States in the foreign relations of the United States. This new role for the states would be based on principles of federalism rather than congressional consent or inaction. In the past, this limitation on the constitutional scope of the treaty making power may not have been a problem because of Congress's Commerce Clause powers. Adapted from the source document.