Clinton, High Court Differ on Abduction

President-elect Bill Clinton on Tuesday questioned a Supreme Court ruling that found no illegality in the U.S. abduction of Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain, who later was acquitted of murdering a federal drug agent.

He said the ruling “goes way too far” in staking out the U.S. right to abduct people from foreign soil.

“The Supreme Court ruled that unless the treaty explicitly forbids it, our country was free to go into Mexico or into any other country that we had a similar treaty with and take someone out,” Clinton said. “My own opinion is that that is too broad a policy for our country to have.”