Zschernig v. Miller

In Zschernig v. Miller, 389 U.S. 429, 19 L. Ed. 2d 683, 88 S. Ct. 664 (1968), the United States Supreme Court held that state courts cannot look behind a foreign country's law to determine whether its government actually provides United States citizens with the rights that its law claims it does. The Court explained that "minute inquiries concerning the actual administration of foreign law . . .and the credibility of foreign diplomatic statements" are the kinds of "matters which the Constitution entrusts solely to the Federal Government." Zschernig, 389 U.S. at 435-36. But the Court also stated that statutes merely requiring a "routine reading of foreign laws" to determine whether those laws theoretically provide reciprocal rights for United States citizens do not unconstitutionally encroach on the federal domain over foreign affairs. Id. Under Zschernig, , the court may not determine whether the foreign country's government in fact denies to United States citizens the rights that its law provides them in theory. See Zschernig, 389 U.S. at 434, 439-41.