Jeff Bingaman: “there is an old legal adage that says, hard cases make bad law. That seems to be the case here. No one likes OPEC. None…”

“there is an old legal adage that says, hard cases make bad law. That seems to be the case here. No one likes OPEC. None of us like being put in a position of appearing to defend OPEC. But this amendment, in my opinion, would make bad law. The Framers of the Constitution wisely assigned responsibility for formulating foreign policy and conducting foreign relations to the President and to the Congress, not to the law courts. Chief Justice Marshall said nearly two centuries ago: The judiciary is not the department of the Government to which the assertion of its interest against foreign powers is confided. A question like this is more a political one than a legal one. There has been much talk in this Chamber over the years about the proper role of the judiciary. Nearly every time we are asked to confirm a judicial nomination, we hear speeches given on the Senate floor about the need for judges to confine themselves to the business of interpreting the law, not making the law. And this is exactly what the courts have done in this circumstance. Here is a case where the courts have wisely recognized that OPEC's pricing policies are not something that should be litigated in U.S. courts but should instead be addressed by the political branches of the Government--the President, the executive branch, and the Congress. Senator Kohl's amendment would throw the issue of OPEC's oil prices back into our courts and force the courts to address those issues.”