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Page Number: 4.0

Cite as:  575 U. S. ____ (2015) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington,  D. C.  20543,  of  any  typographical  or  other  formal  errors,  in  order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

_________________ 

No. 13–1034 
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MOONES MELLOULI, PETITIONER v. LORETTA E.
 
LYNCH, ATTORNEY GENERAL
 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 

APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT
 

[June 1, 2015]

 JUSTICE GINSBURG delivered the opinion of the Court. 
This case requires us to decide how immigration judges
should  apply  a  deportation  (removal)  provision,  defined
with  reference  to  federal  drug  laws,  to  an  alien  convicted 
of a state drug-paraphernalia misdemeanor.

Lawful  permanent  resident  Moones  Mellouli,  in  2010,
pleaded  guilty  to  a  misdemeanor  offense  under  Kansas
law,  the  possession  of  drug  paraphernalia  to  “store,  con-
tain,  conceal,  inject,  ingest,  inhale  or  otherwise  introduce
a  controlled  substance  into  the  human  body.”  Kan.  Stat. 
Ann.  §21–5709(b)(2)  (2013  Cum.  Supp.).    The  sole  “para-
phernalia”  Mellouli  was  charged  with  possessing  was  a
sock  in  which  he  had  placed  four  orange  tablets.    The 
criminal  charge  and  plea  agreement  did  not  identify  the 
controlled  substance  involved,  but  Mellouli  had  acknowl-
edged, prior to the charge and plea, that the tablets were
Adderall.  Mellouli was sentenced to a suspended term of 
359 days and 12 months’ probation.

In  February  2012,  several  months  after  Mellouli  suc-
cessfully  completed  probation,  Immigration  and  Customs 
Enforcement  officers  arrested  him  as  deportable  under  8