United States v. Roberts
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
1 F. Supp. 2d 601 (1998)

- Written by Rich Walter, JD
Facts
Charges were filed in federal district court against Kingsley Roberts, a foreign national, for sexually assaulting an American passenger on board a cruise ship sailing on the high seas. The ship’s flag state was Liberia, but the ship never sailed in Liberian waters. The ship’s owner was a Panamanian company, but the company was headquartered in the United States, and some of the company’s shareholders and most of the company’s customers were American. Moreover, according to 18 U.S.C. § 7(8), which Congress enacted for the protection of American cruise ship passengers, the fact that the cruise began and ended in American ports placed the ship under special federal jurisdiction. Roberts argued that several treaties to which the United States was party rendered § 7(8) invalid and that only Liberia, as the ship’s flag state, could hear Roberts’s case. Roberts moved for the federal charges to be dismissed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Vance, J.)
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