Source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/514/386
Timestamp: 2013-05-22 10:17:49
Document Index: 371022645

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 106', '§ 1251', '§ 1254', '§ 10327', '§ 106', '§ 106', '§ 545', '§ 545', '§ 106', '§ 106', '§ 106', '§ 106', '§ 106', '§ 106', '§ 545', '§ 3', '§ 3', '§ 2', '§ 106', '§ 106', '§ 106', '§ 545', '§ 242', '§ 545', '§ 545', '§ 545', '§ 545', '§ 545', '§ 3', '§ 3', '§ 243', '§ 106', '§ 243']

Marvin STONE, Petitioner v. IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE. | Supreme Court | LII / Legal Information Institute
Supreme Court aboutsearch liibulletin subscribe previews Marvin STONE, Petitioner v. IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE.
514 U.S. 386115 S.Ct. 1537131 L.Ed.2d 465 (514 U.S. 386115 S.Ct. 1537131 L.Ed.2d 465, 514 U.S. 386115 S.Ct. 1537131 L.Ed.2d 465)
Decided: April 19, 1995
[HTML] dissent, BREYER, O'CONNOR, SOUTER
(c) Petitioner's construction of § 106(a)(6)which presumes that a reconsideration motion renders the underlying order nonfinal if the motion is filed before a petition for review but that finality is unaffected if the reconsideration motion is filed after the petition for reviewis unacceptable. It is implausible that Congress would direct different results in the two circumstances. Moreover, it is presumed that Congress intends its amendment of a statute to have real and substantial effect, yet under petitioner's construction the consolidation provision would have effect only in the rarest of circumstances. Pp. __.
(e) A consideration of the analogous practice of appellate court review of district court judgments confirms the correctness of this Court's construction of Congress' language. The filing of a motion for relief from judgment more than 10 days after judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)the closest analogy to the petition for agency reconsideration heredoes not affect the finality of a district court's judgment. If filed before the appeal is taken, it does not toll the running of the time to take an appeal; if filed after the notice of appeal, appellate court jurisdiction is not divested. Each case gives rise to two separate appellate proceedings that can be consolidated. However, if a post-trial motion that renders an underlying judgment nonfinal is filed before an appeal, it tolls the time for review, and if filed afterwards, it divests the appellate court of jurisdiction. Thus, it gives rise to only one appeal in which all matters are reviewed. In contrast, the hybrid tolling rule suggested by the dissentthat a reconsideration motion before the BIA renders the original order nonfinal if made before a petition for judicial review is filed but does not affect the finality of the order if filed afterwardshas no analogue at all in the appellate court-district court context. Pp. __.
On January 3, 1983, Stone was convicted of conspiracy and mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 371 and 1341. He served 18 months of a 3-year prison term. In March 1987, after his release, the INS served him with an order to show cause why he should not be deported as a nonimmigrant who had remained in the United States beyond the period authorized by law. In January 1988, after a series of hearings, an Administrative Law Judge ordered Stone deported. The ALJ concluded that under the regulations in effect when Stone entered the United States, an alien on a nonimmigrant for business visa could remain in the country for an initial period not to exceed six months with the privilege of seeking extensions, which could be granted in 6-month increments. 8 CFR 214.2(b) (1977). The ALJ ordered deportation under 8 U.S.C. 1251(a)(2) (now § 1251(a)(1)(B) (1988 ed., Supp. V)) based on petitioner's testimony that he had remained in the United States since 1977 without seeking any extension. The ALJ denied Stone's application for suspension of deportation under 8 U.S.C. 1254(a)(1), concluding that Stone's conviction of mail fraud and 18-month incarceration barred him, as a matter of law, from establishing "good moral character" as required by § 1254. See 8 U.S.C. 1101(f)(7).
Section 106(a)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) specifies that "a petition for review of a final deportation order may be filed not later than 90 days after the date of the issuance of the final deportation order, or, in the case of an alien convicted of an aggravated felony, not later than 30 days after the issuance of such order." 8 U.S.C. 1105a(a)(1) (1988 ed., and Supp. V). The clause pertaining to an "aggravated felony" is not a factor in the analysis, petitioner's offense not being within that defined term. See 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(43) (1988 ed., Supp. V). He had the benefit of the full 90-day filing period. There is no dispute that a deportation order "becomes final upon dismissal of an appeal by the Board of Immigration Appeals," 8 CFR 243.1 (1977), and, the parties agree, the 90-day period started on July 26, 1991.
We considered the timeliness of a review petition where there is a motion to reconsider or reopen an agency's order in ICC v. Locomotive Engineers, 482 U.S. 270, 107 S.Ct. 2360, 96 L.Ed.2d 222 (1987). The Interstate Commerce Commission's governing statute provided that, with certain exceptions, judicial review of ICC orders would be governed by the Hobbs Act, 28 U.S.C. 2341 et seq. See Locomotive Engineers, 482 U.S., at 277, 107 S.Ct., at 2364-2365. We held that "the timely petition for administrative reconsideration stayed the running of the Hobbs Act's limitation period until the petition had been acted upon by the Commission." Id., at 284, 107 S.Ct., at 2368. Our conclusion, we acknowledged, was in some tension with the language of both the Hobbs Act, which permits an aggrieved party to petition for review "within 60 days after the entry" of a final order, 28 U.S.C. 2344, and of 49 U.S.C. 10327(i), "which provides that, 'notwithstanding' the provision authorizing the Commission to reopen and reconsider its orders (§ 10327(g)), 'an action of the Commission . . . is final on the date on which it is served, and a civil action to enforce, enjoin, suspend, or set aside the action may be filed after that date.' " Locomotive Engineers, 482 U.S., at 284, 107 S.Ct., at 2368-2369. We found the controlling language similar to the corresponding provision of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. 704, which provides that "agency action otherwise final is final for the purposes of this section entitled 'Actions Reviewable' whether or not there has been presented or determined an application for . . . any form of reconsideration""language that has long been construed . . . merely to relieve parties from the requirement of petitioning for rehearing before seeking judicial review . . . but not to prevent petitions for reconsideration that are actually filed from rendering the orders under reconsideration nonfinal." Locomotive Engineers, supra, at 284-285, 107 S.Ct., at 2369.
In support of that longstanding construction of the APA language, we cited dicta in two earlier cases, American Farm Lines v. Black Ball Freight Service, 397 U.S. 532, 541, 90 S.Ct. 1288, 1293-1294, 25 L.Ed.2d 547 (1970); CAB v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 367 U.S. 316, 326-327, 81 S.Ct. 1611, 1619-1620, 6 L.Ed.2d 869 (1961), and the holding in Outland v. CAB, 284 F.2d 224, 227 (CADC 1960), a decision cited with approval in both Black Ball and Delta. Outland justified treating orders as nonfinal for purposes of review during the pendency of a motion for reconsideration in terms of judicial economy: "When the party elects to seek a rehearing there is always the possibility that the order complained of will be modified in a way which renders judicial review unnecessary." Outland, supra, at 227.
Section 106 of the INA provides that "the procedure prescribed by, and all the provisions of chapter 158 of title 28, shall apply to, and shall be the sole and exclusive procedure for, the judicial review of all final orders of deportation. . . ." 8 U.S.C. 1105a(a) (1988 ed. and Supp. IV). The reference to chapter 158 of Title 28 is a reference to the Hobbs Act. In light of our construction of the Hobbs Act in Locomotive Engineers, had Congress used that Act to govern review of deportation orders without further qualification, it would follow that the so-called tolling rule applied.
Congress directed that the Hobbs Act procedures would govern review of deportation orders, except for 10 specified qualifications. See 8 U.S.C. 1105a(a). Two of those exceptions are pertinent. The first, contained in § 106(a)(1) of the INA, provides an alien with 90 days to petition for review of a final deportation order (30 days for aliens convicted of an aggravated felony), instead of the Hobbs Act's 60-day period. See 8 U.S.C. 1105a(a)(1). The second and decisive exception is contained in § 106(a)(6), a provision added when Congress amended the INA in 1990. The section provides:
"Whenever a petitioner seeks review of an order under this section, any review sought with respect to a motion to reopen or reconsider such an order shall be consolidated with the review of the order."
Although the consolidation provision does not mention tolling, see post, at ____ (BREYER, J., dissenting), tolling would be the logical consequence if the statutory scheme provided for the nonfinality of orders upon the filing of a reconsideration motion. Locomotive Engineers' conclusion as to tolling followed as a necessary consequence from its conclusion about finality. Finality is the antecedent question, and as to that matter the consolidation provision speaks volumes. All would agree that the provision envisions two petitions for review. See post, at ____ (BREYER, J., dissenting). Because only "final deportation orders" may be reviewed, 8 U.S.C. 1105a(a)(1), it follows by necessity that the provision requires for its operation the existence of two separate final orders, the petitions for review of which could be consolidated. The two orders cannot remain final and hence the subject of separate petitions for review if the filing of the reconsideration motion rendered the original order nonfinal. It follows that the filing of the reconsideration motion does not toll the time to petition for review. By speaking to finality, the consolidation provision does say quite a bit about tolling.
That construct, however, is premised on a view of finality quite inconsistent with the tolling rule petitioner himself proposes. If, as petitioner advocates, the filing of a timely petition for reconsideration before seeking judicial review renders the underlying order nonfinal, so that a reviewing court would lack jurisdiction to review the order until after disposition of the reconsideration motion, one wonders how a court retains jurisdiction merely because the petitioner delays the reconsideration motions until after filing the petition for judicial review of the underlying order. The policy supporting the nonfinality rulethat "when the party elects to seek a rehearing there is always a possibility that the order complained of will be modified in a way which renders judicial review unnecessary," Outland, 284 F.2d, at 227applies with equal force where the party seeks agency rehearing after filing a petition for judicial review. Indeed, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, whose decision in Outland we cited in support of our construction in Locomotive Engineers, has so held in the years following our decision. See Wade v. FCC, 986 F.2d 1433, 1434 (CADC 1993) (per curiam) ("The danger of wasted judicial effort . . . arises whether a party seeks agency reconsideration before, simultaneous with, or after filing an appeal or petition for judicial review") (citations omitted). The Wade holding rested on, and is consistent with, our decision in a somewhat analogous context that the filing of a Rule 59 motion to alter or amend a district court's judgment strips the appellate court of jurisdiction, whether the Rule 59 motion is filed before or after the notice of appeal. See Griggs v. Provident Consumer Discount Co., 459 U.S. 56, 61, 103 S.Ct. 400, 403-404, 74 L.Ed.2d 225 (1982) (per curiam). Our decision, based on a construction of Fed.Rule App.Proc. 4(a)(4), noted the "theoretical inconsistency" of permitting the district court to retain jurisdiction to decide the Rule 59 motion while treating the notice of appeal as "adequate for purposes of beginning the appeals process." Griggs, supra, at 59, 103 S.Ct., at 402.
Deportation orders are self-executing orders, not dependent upon judicial enforcement. This accounts for the automatic stay mechanism, the statutory provision providing that service of the petition for review of the deportation order stays the deportation absent contrary direction from the court or the alien's aggravated felony status. See 8 U.S.C. 1105a(a)(3). The automatic stay would be all but a necessity for preserving the jurisdiction of the court, for the agency might not otherwise refrain from enforcement. Indeed, the INA provides that "nothing in this section Judicial review of orders of deportation and exclusion shall be construed to require the Attorney General to defer deportation of an alien after the issuance of a deportation order because of the right of judicial review of the order granted by this section." 8 U.S.C. 1105a(a)(8) (1988 ed., Supp. V). And it has been the longstanding view of the INS, a view we presume Congress understood when it amended the Act in 1990, that a motion for reconsideration does not serve to stay the deportation order. 8 CFR 3.8 (1977). Cf. Delta Air Lines, 367 U.S., at 325-327, 81 S.Ct., at 1619-1620 (certificate of public convenience and necessity effective when issued though not final for purposes of judicial review because of pendency of reconsideration motion).
An alien who had filed for agency reconsideration might seek to avoid immediate deportation by seeking a judicial stay. At oral argument, the petitioner suggested a habeas corpus action as one solution to the dilemma. Even on the assumption that a habeas corpus action would be available, see 8 U.S.C. 1105a(a) (Exclusiveness of procedure), the solution is unsatisfactory. In evaluating those stay applications the courts would be required to assess the probability of the alien's prevailing on review, turning the stay proceedings into collateral previews of the eventual petitions for reviewindeed a preview now implicating the district court, not just the court of appeals. By inviting duplicative review in multiple courts, the normal tolling rule would frustrate, rather than promote, its stated goal of judicial economy.
The dissent does not dispute that a principal purpose of the 1990 amendments to the INA was to expedite petitions for review and to redress the related problem of successive and frivolous administrative appeals and motions. In the Immigration Act of 1990, Pub.L. 101-649, 104 Stat. 5048, Congress took five steps to reduce or eliminate these abuses. First, it directed the Attorney General to promulgate regulations limiting the number of reconsideration and reopening motions that an alien could file. § 545(b). Second, it instructed the Attorney General to promulgate regulations specifying the maximum time period for the filing of those motions, hinting that a 20-day period would be appropriate. See ibid. Third, Congress cut in half the time for seeking judicial review of the final deportation order, from 180 to 90 days. See ibid. Fourth, Congress directed the Attorney General to define "frivolous behavior for which attorneys may be sanctioned" in connection with administrative appeals and motions. See ibid., § 545(a). In the dissent's view, a fifth measure, the consolidation provision, was added for no apparent reason and bears no relation to the other amendments Congress enacted at the same time. It is more plausible that when Congress took the first four steps to solve a problem, the fifththe consolidation provisionwas also part of the solution, and not a step in the other direction. By envisioning that a final deportation order will remain final and reviewable for 90 days from the date of its issuance irrespective of the later filing of a reconsideration motion, Congress' amendment eliminates much if not all of the incentive to file a meritless reconsideration motion, and, like the other amendments adopted at the same time, expedites the time within which the judicial review process of the deportation order begins.
The consolidation provision in § 106(a)(6) reflects Congress' understanding that a deportation order is final, and reviewable, when issued. Its finality is not affected by the subsequent filing of a motion to reconsider. The order being final when issued, an alien has 90 days from that date to seek review. The alien, if he chooses, may also seek agency reconsideration of the order and seek review of the disposition upon reconsideration within 90 days of its issuance. Where the original petition is still before the court, the court shall consolidate the two petitions. See 8 U.S.C. 1105a(a)(6).
The majority reads § 106(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1105a(a) (1988 ed., Supp. V), as creating an exception to the ordinary legal rules that govern the interaction of (1) motions for agency reconsideration with (2) time limits for appeals. In my view, the statute does not create such an exception. And, reading it to do so risks unnecessary complexity in the technical, but important, matter of how one petitions a court for judicial review of an adverse agency decision. For these reasons, I dissent.
This Court, in ICC v. Locomotive Engineers, 482 U.S. 270, 107 S.Ct. 2360, 96 L.Ed.2d 222 (1987), considered the interaction between reconsideration motions and appeal time limits when one wants to petition a court of appeals to review an adverse judgment of an administrative agency (which I shall call an "agency/court" appeal). The Court held that this interaction resembled that which takes place between (1) an appeal from a district court judgment to a court of appeals (which I shall call a "court/court" appeal) and (2) certain motions for district court reconsideration, namely those filed soon after entry of the district court judgment. See Fed.Rule App.Proc. 4(a)(4). The relevant statute (commonly called the Hobbs Act) said that a petition for review of a final agency order may be filed in the court of appeals "within 60 days after its entry." 28 U.S.C. 2344. The Court concluded, on the basis of precedent, that the filing of a proper petition for reconsideration, "within the period allotted for judicial review of the original order . . . tolls the period for judicial review of the original order." 482 U.S., at 279, 107 S.Ct., at 2366. That order can "be appealed to the courts . . . after the petition for reconsideration is denied." Ibid. See also id., at 284-285, 107 S.Ct., at 2368-2369.
In my view, we should interpret the INA as calling for tolling, just as we interpreted the Hobbs Act in Locomotive Engineers. For one thing, the appeals time limit language in the INA is similar to that in the Hobbs Act. Like the Hobbs Act, the INA does not mention tolling explicitly; it simply says that "a petition for review may be filed not later than 90 days after the date of the issuance of the final deportation order." INA § 106(a)(1), 8 U.S.C. 1105a(a)(1) (1988 ed., Supp. V). More importantly, the INA explicitly states that the "procedure prescribed by, and all provisions of the Hobbs Act, 28 U.S.C. 2341 et seq. shall apply to, and shall be the sole and exclusive procedure for, the judicial review of all final orders of deportation." INA § 106(a), 8 U.S.C. 1105a(a). This statutory phrase is not conclusive because it is followed by several exceptions, one of which is the subsection setting the "time for filing a petition" for review. INA § 106(a)(1), 8 U.S.C. 1105a(a)(1). But, the context suggests that the reason for calling the latter clause an exception lies in the number of days permitted for filing90 in the INA, as opposed to 60 in the Hobbs Act. Nothing in the language of § 106(a) (which was amended three years after Locomotive Engineers, see Immigration Act of 1990, § 545(b), 104 Stat. 5065) suggests any further exception in respect to tolling.
"whenever a petitioner seeks (1) review of a final deportation order . . . any (2) review sought with respect to a motion to reopen or reconsider such an order shall be consolidated with the review of the order." 8 U.S.C. 1105a(a)(6) (1988 ed., Supp. V).
I do not believe it necessary, however, to create a special exception from the ordinary Locomotive Engineers tolling rule in order to make the "consolidation" subsection meaningful, for even under that ordinary tolling rule, the "consolidation" subsection will have work to do. Consider the following case: The BIA enters a final deportation order on Day Zero. The alien files a timely petition for review in a court of appeals on Day 50. Circumstances suddenly changesay, in the alien's home country and on Day 70 the alien then files a motion to reopen with the agency. (The majority says such a filing "must be" a "rare" happening, ante, at __, but I do not see why. New circumstances justifying reopening or reconsideration might arise at any time. Indeed, this situation must arise with some frequency, since INS regulations expressly recognize that a motion to reopen or reconsider may be filed after judicial review has been sought. See, e.g., 8 CFR § 3.8(a) (1994) (requiring that motions to reopen or reconsider state whether the validity of the order to be reopened has been, or is, the subject of a judicial proceeding)). The agency denies the reconsideration motion on Day 100. The alien then appeals that denial on Day 110. In this case, the court of appeals would have before it two appeals: the appeal filed on Day 50 and the appeal filed on Day 110. The "consolidation" subsection tells the court of appeals to consolidate those two appeals and decide them together. (In fact, the alien might well have informed the court of appeals, say on Day 70, about the reconsideration motion, in which case the court, unless it thought the motion a frivolous stalling device, might have postponed decision on the merits of the initial appeal, awaiting the results of the reconsideration decision, an appeal from which it could then consolidate with the initial appeal. See, e.g., Gebremichael v. INS, 10 F.3d 28, 33, n. 13 (CA1 1993) (decision on appeal stayed until the agency resolved alien's motion for reconsideration; initial appeal then consolidated with the appeal from the denial of rehearing)). In this example, the subsection would have meaning as an "exception" to the Hobbs Act, cf. ante, at __, since nothing in the Hobbs Act requires the consolidation of court reviews.
The answer to this conceptual argument lies in the "general principle" that "jurisdiction, once vested, is not divested, although a state of things should arrive in which original jurisdiction could not be exercised." United States v. The Little Charles, 26 F.Cas. 979, 982 (No. 15,612) (CC Va.1818) (Marshall, C.J., Circuit Justice), quoted in Republic Nat. Bank of Miami v. United States, 506 U.S. ----, ----, 113 S.Ct. 554, 558, 121 L.Ed.2d 474 (1992) (slip op., at 5). The first appeal, as of Day 50, has reached the court of appeals. Thus, conceptually speaking, one should not consider a later-filed motion for reconsideration as having "divested" the court of jurisdiction. And, practically speaking, it makes sense to leave the appeal there, permitting the court of appeals to decide it, or to delay it, as circumstances dictate (say, depending upon the extent to which effort and resources already have been expended in prosecuting and deciding the appeal). After all, we have long recognized that courts have inherent power to stay proceedings and "to control the disposition of the causes on its docket with economy of time and effort for itself, for counsel, and for litigants." Landis v. North American Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254, 57 S.Ct. 163, 166, 81 L.Ed. 153 (1936); cf. 28 U.S.C. 1367(c)(3) (1988 ed., Supp. V) (providing that district court may, but need not, decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over a claim when it has dismissed all claims over which it has original jurisdiction).
The precedential problem, in the majority's view, arises out of Griggs v. Provident Consumer Discount Co., 459 U.S. 56, 103 S.Ct. 400, 74 L.Ed.2d 225 (1982) (per curiam ), a court/court case in which this Court held that the filing of a reconsideration motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59 caused an earlier-filed notice of appeal to " 'self-destruct,' " id., at 61, 103 S.Ct., at 403, despite the fact that the earlier-filed notice had "vested" the court of appeals with "jurisdiction." Were the same principle to apply in the agency/court context, then the reconsideration motion filed on Day 70 would cause the earlier-filed petition for review, filed on Day 50, to "self-destruct," leaving nothing for the court of appeals to consolidate with an eventual appeal from an agency denial of a reconsideration motion (on Day 100).
Griggs, however, does not apply in the agency/court context. This Court explicitly rested its decision in Griggs upon the fact that a specific Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure, Rule 4(a)(4), provides for the "self-destruction." That Rule says that upon the filing of, say, a Rule 59 motion to amend a district court judgment, a "notice of appeal filed before the disposition of e.g., that Rule 59 motion . . . shall have no effect." By its terms, Rule 4(a)(4) applies only in the court/court context; and, to my knowledge, there is no comparable provision applicable in agency/court contexts such as this one. In the absence of such a provision, Griggs explicitly adds that the "district courts and courts of appeals would both have had the power to modify the same judgment," 459 U.S., at 60, 103 S.Ct., at 403 (emphasis added)as I believe the agency and the court of appeals have here.
I recognize that at least one court of appeals has adopted an agency/court rule analogous to the "self-destruct" rule set forth in Rule 4(a)(4). Wade v. FCC, 986 F.2d 1433, 1434 (CADC 1993) (per curiam ); see also Losh v. Brown, 6 Vet.App. 87, 89 (1993). But see Berroteran-Melendez v. INS, 955 F.2d 1251, 1254 (CA9 1992) (court retains jurisdiction when motion to reopen is filed after the filing of a petition for judicial review); Lozada v. INS, 857 F.2d 10, 12 (CA1 1988) (court retained jurisdiction over petition for review notwithstanding later-filed motion to reopen, but held case in abeyance pending agency's decision on the motion). That court's conclusion, however, was based upon a single observation: that "the danger of wasted judicial effort that attends the simultaneous exercise of judicial and agency jurisdiction arises whether a party seeks agency reconsideration before, simultaneous with, or after filing an appeal." Wade, supra, at 1434 (citations omitted) (referring to the danger that the agency's ruling might change the order being appealed, thereby mooting the appeal and wasting any appellate effort expended). While this observation is true enough, it does not justify the "self-destruct" rule, because it fails to take into account other important factors, namely (a) the principle that jurisdiction, once vested, is generally not divested, and (b) the fact that, in some cases (say, when briefing and argument already have been completed in the court of appeals) judicial economy may actually weigh against stripping the court of jurisdiction. On this last point, it is significant that under the Federal Rules, the motions to revise or reopen court judgments that cause an earlier-filed appeal to "self-destruct" must be filed within a few days after the entry of judgment. See, e.g., Fed.Rule Civ.Proc. 4(a)(4) (10 days). The agency rules before us, in contrast, permit a motion for reconsideration (or reopening) well after the entry of the agency's final order. See 8 CFR § 3.8(a) (1994) (no time limit on motion for reconsideration filed with BIA). See also, e.g., 10 CFR § 2.734(a)(1) (1995) (Nuclear Regulatory Commission may consider untimely motion to reopen where "grave issue" raised). This timing difference means that it is less likely in the court/court context than in the agency/court context that "self-destruction" of an earlier-filed notice of appeal would interrupt (and therefore waste) a court of appeals review already well underway. Consequently, this Court should not simply assume that the court/court rule applies in the agency/court context.
The majority ultimately says we ought not decide whether the "self-destruct" rule applies in the agency/court context. Ante, at __,__. But, the decision cannot be avoided. That is because the majority's basic argumentthat a tolling rule would deprive the consolidation subsection of meaningdepends upon the assumption that the "self-destruct" rule does apply. And, for the reasons stated above, that assumption is not supported by any statutory or rule-based authority.
The first possibility is a matter for the appropriate Rules Committees, not this Court. Those bodies can focus directly upon the interaction of reconsideration motions and appellate time limits; they can consider relevant similarities and differences between agency/court and court/court appeals; and they can consider the relevance of special, immigration-related circumstances, such as the fact that the filing of a petition for review from a "final" deportation order automatically stays deportation, INA § 106(a)(3), 8 U.S.C. 1105a(a)(3) (1988 ed., Supp. V). The second possibility (that adopted by the majority) creates a serious risk of unfair loss of a right to appeal, because it is inconsistent with Locomotive Engineers (thereby multiplying complexity). And, it has no basis in the INA, which generally incorporates the procedures of the Hobbs Act and the text and history of which simply do not purport to make an exception denying tolling. The third possibility, in my view, is the best of the three, for it promotes uniformity in practice among the agencies; it is consistent with the Hobbs Act, whose procedures the INA generally adopts; and it thereby helps to avoid inadvertent or unfair loss of the right to appeal.
The upshot is that Locomotive Engineers, Griggs, the language of the immigration statute before us, the language of the Federal Rules, and various practical considerations together argue for an interpretation of INA § 106(a) that both (1) permits the filing of a motion for reconsideration to toll the time for petitioning for judicial review (when no petition for review has yet been filed), and (2) permits court review that has already "vested" in the court of appeals to continue there (when the petition for review was filed prior to the filing of the motion for reconsideration). This interpretation simply requires us to read the language of the INA as this Court read the Hobbs Act in Locomotive Engineers. It would avoid creating any "Hobson's choice" for the alien, cf. ante, at __, for an alien could both appeal (thereby obtaining an automatic stay of deportation, INA § 106(a)(3), 8 U.S.C. 1105a(a)(3)), and then also petition for reconsideration. And, it would avoid entrapping the unwary lawyer who did not immediately file a petition for court review, thinking that a reconsideration petition would toll the appeal time limit as it does in other agency/court contexts.
The majority, and the parties, compare and contrast the tolling and nontolling rules in various court-efficiency and delay-related aspects. But, on balance, these considerations do not argue strongly for one side or the other. When Congress amended the INA in 1990 (adding, among other things, the consolidation subsection) it did hope to diminish delays. But, the statute explicitly set forth several ways of directly achieving this objective. See, e.g., Immigration Act of 1990, § 545(a), 104 Stat. 5063 (creating INA § 242B(d), 8 U.S.C. 1252b(d), directing the Attorney General to issue regulations providing for summary dismissal of, and attorney sanctions for, frivolous administrative appeals); § 545(b)(1) (reducing time for petitioning for review from 6 months to 90 days); § 545(d)(1) (directing the Attorney General to issue regulations limiting the number of motions to reopen and to reconsider an alien may file and setting a maximum time period for the filing of such motions); § 545(d)(2) (directing the Attorney General to do the same with respect to the number and timing of administrative appeals). Significantly, the statute did not list an antitolling rule as one of those ways. At the same time, Congress enacted certain measures apparently designed to make the deportation-order review process more efficient. See, e.g., § 545(d)(2) (asking the Attorney General to issue regulations specifying that the administrative appeal of a deportation order must be consolidated with the appeal of all motions to reopen or reconsider that order; providing for the filing of appellate and reply briefs; and identifying the items to be included in the notice of administrative appeal). In light of these last-mentioned provisions, the consolidation subsection would seem consistent with Congress' purposes in 1990 even without an implicit no-tolling rule.
Indeed, the Attorney General has construed one of these last-mentioned 1990 amendments as authorizing, in a somewhat analogous situation, a tolling provision roughly similar to that in Locomotive Engineers. In § 545(d)(2) of the 1990 Act, Congress asked the Attorney General to issue regulations with respect to "the consolidation of motions to reopen or to reconsider an Immigration Judge's deportation order with the appeal to the BIA of that order." 104 Stat., at 5066 (emphasis added). In response, the Attorney General has proposed a regulation saying, among other things, that "a motion to reopen a decision rendered by an Immigration Judge . . . that is pending when an appeal to the BIA is filed . . . shall be deemed a motion to remand the administrative appeal for further proceedings before the Immigration Judge. . . . Such motion . . . shall be consolidated with, and considered by the Board later in connection with, the appeal to the Board. . . ." 59 Fed.Reg. 29386, 29388 (1994) (proposed new 8 CFR § 3.2(c)(4)). See also 59 Fed.Reg., at 29387 (proposed new § 3.2(b) (parallel provision for motions to reconsider)). This approach, which is comparable to the Locomotive Engineers tolling rule, would govern the interaction of administrative appeals and motions to reopen the decision of an Immigration Judge. It seems logical that Congress might want the same rule to govern the analogous situation concerning the interaction of petitions for judicial review and motions to reconsider or reopen a decision of the BIA.
One final point. The INS argues that the Court should defer to one of its regulations, 8 CFR § 243.1 (1994), which, it says, interprets INA § 106(a) as eliminating the tolling rule. See, e.g., Shalala v. Guernsey Memorial Hospital, 514 U.S. ----, ---- - ----, 115 S.Ct. 1232, 1236-1237, 131 L.Ed.2d 106 (1995) (slip op., at 6-7); Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 843, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 2781-2782, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). The regulation in question, however, says nothing about tolling. To the contrary, it simply defines "final order of deportation," using language very similar to the language this Court, in Locomotive Engineers, interpreted as embodying the tolling rule. Compare the regulation here at issue, 8 CFR § 243.1 (1994) ("An order of deportation . . . shall become final upon the BIA's dismissal of an appeal" from the order of a single immigration judge), with the language at issue in Locomotive Engineers, 49 U.S.C. 10327(i) ("An action of the Interstate Commerce Commission . . . is final on the date on which it is served"). A lawyer reading the regulation simply would not realize that the INS intended to create an unmentioned exception to a critically important technical procedure. Moreover, the INS itself has apparently interpreted the regulation somewhat differently at different times. Compare Brief for Respondent 13-17 (arguing that the regulation embodies a no-tolling rule), with Chu v. INS, 875 F.2d 777, 779 (CA9 1989) (in which INS argued that a reconsideration motion makes the initial order nonfinal, and thereby implies tolling). See, e.g., Thomas Jefferson Univ. v. Shalala, 512 U.S. ----, ---- - ----, 114 S.Ct. 2381, 2393-2394, 129 L.Ed.2d 405 (1994) (slip op., at 10-11) (inconsistent interpretation entitled to "considerably less deference" than consistently held agency view). For these reasons, I do not accept the INS's claim that its silent regulation creates a "no tolling" rule.