United States First Circuit

In consolidated appeals are from the denial of the efforts of two academic researchers to prevent the execution of two sets of subpoenas issued to Boston College by a commissioner appointed pursuant to 18 U.S.C. section 3512 and the "US-UK MLAT," the mutual legal assistance treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom, as part of an investigation by UK authorities into the 1972 abduction and death of Jean McConville, who was thought to have acted as an informer for the British authorities on the activities of republicans in Northern Ireland, the District Court's dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and for failure to state a claim are affirmed where: 1) appellants are not able to state a claim that they have private rights that arise under the treaty, and because a federal court has no subject matter jurisdiction to entertain a claim for judicial review of the Attorney General's actions pursuant to the treaty; and 2) appellants fail to state a Constitutional claim.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/06/2012
• Published 07/06/2012

Judges

• LYNCH

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel