The murders of Jessica Gonzales' three children in 1999 rank as one of the most poignant tragedies in recent Colorado history. Now it is being used, incredibly, in an attempt to undermine U.S. legal sovereignty.

In the nation's capital this morning, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is scheduled to hear Jessica Gonzales v. United States of America, a case alleging that the behavior of Castle Rock police in responding to Gonzales' calls for help violated international law.

The commission is one of two organs of the Organization of American States - the other is the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica - that attempts to monitor and rectify human rights abuses throughout the Western Hemisphere. According to the petition asking the commission to hear the case, "the United States has failed to adequately investigate and prosecute domestic violence cases, and Ms. Gonzales is but one of many victims of this widespread and systematic failure on the part of the State."

What's happening here is a textbook case of activist lawyers hoping to expand the reach and influence of international agencies in the pursuit of their political agendas. In this case the attorneys hail from the American Civil Liberties Union and Columbia Law School's Human Rights Clinic. And they're obviously proud of their legal coup: As a press release from Columbia proclaims, "This is the first time an individual complaint by a victim of domestic violence has been brought against the United States for international human rights violations."

Let us hope it is also the last.

It doesn't particularly matter what you think of the police's performance on that tragic day. In retrospect they obviously should have responded aggressively to Gonzales' calls pleading with them to look for her estranged husband, who'd taken the children despite a court order limiting his contact with the family.

Instead of immediately beginning a search, police told Gonzales to wait. Her husband killed the 10-, 8- and 7-year-old girls eight hours later.

Do police have an affirmative duty to prevent crime - even given what little they knew about the actual danger that day? Would they have been able to find the man even if they'd looked?

Such questions have already been litigated in U.S. courts. Gonzales (her surname now is Lenahan) sued, the case made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, and two years ago it ruled 7-2 in favor of Castle Rock.

The petitioners argue that "Gender discrimination is the common thread running through the violations by the United States of Jessica Gonzales' rights," and that "Colorado police had affirmative obligations to take effective measures to prevent Mr. Gonzales from subjecting her to acts of violence." Maybe police should have such obligations (although it would open them up to nightmarish second-guessing), but if so, that's a decision that Americans and U.S. courts should decide for themselves.

The decisions shouldn't be made under pressure from international agencies that have adopted expansive theories of what count as violations of basic human rights.

Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages, can be reached at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.