Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/543/371.html
Timestamp: 2018-09-22 00:37:34
Document Index: 4881089

Matched Legal Cases: ['§1231', '§2241', '§1252', '§2241', '§1252', '§1252']

CLARK v. MARTINEZ [03-878] | FindLaw
CLARK v. MARTINEZ [03-878]
CLARK, FIELD OFFICE DIRECTOR, SEATTLE, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT, et al. v. MARTINEZ, (2005)
Argued: October 13, 2004 Decided: January 12, 2005
Scalia, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Stevens, O'Connor, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer, JJ., joined. O'Connor, J., filed a concurring opinion. Thomas, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Rehnquist, C. J., joined as to Part I-A.
We also reject the Government's argument that, under Zadvydas, §1231(a)(6) "authorizes detention until it approaches constitutional limits." Brief for Petitioners in No. 03-878, at 27-28; Brief for Respondent in No. 03-7434, at 27-28. The Government provides no citation to support that description of the case--and none exists. Zadvydas did not hold that the statute authorizes detention until it approaches constitutional limits; it held that, since interpreting the statute to authorize indefinite detention (one plausible reading) would approach constitutional limits, the statute should be read (in line with the other plausible reading) to authorize detention only for a period consistent with the purpose of effectuating removal. 523 U. S. 224, 237-238 (1998); United States ex rel. Attorney General v. Delaware & Hudson Co., 213 U. S. 366, 408 (1909). In Zadvydas, it was the statute's text read in light of its purpose, not some implicit statutory command to avoid approaching constitutional limits, which produced the rule that the Secretary may detain aliens only for the period reasonably necessary to bring about their removal. See 533 U. S., at 697-699.
This danger is real. In St. Cyr, this Court held that the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) did not divest district courts of jurisdiction under 28 U. S. C. §2241 over habeas actions filed by criminal aliens to challenge removal orders, 533 U. S., at 314. The Court did so because it thought that otherwise the statute would preclude any avenue of judicial review of removal orders of criminal aliens, thus raising a serious Suspension Clause question. Id., at 305. This was a construction of (among other provisions) 8 U. S. C. §§1252(a)(1) and 1252(b)(9), and 28 U. S. C. §2241, none of which distinguishes between criminal and noncriminal aliens. 533 U. S., at 308-314. The INA, however, clearly allows noncriminal aliens, unlike criminal aliens, a right to judicial review of removal decisions in the courts of appeals under the review provisions of §1252(a)(1), and St. Cyr involved only criminal aliens. After St. Cyr, therefore, one would have thought that "noncriminal aliens seeking to challenge their removal orders . . . [would] still presumably be required to proceed directly to the court of appeals by way of petition for review, under the restrictive modified Hobbs Act review provisions set forth in §1252(a)(1)," rather than sue directly under the habeas statute. Id., at 335 (Scalia, J., joined by Rehnquist, C. J., and O'Connor and Thomas, JJ., dissenting). Yet lower courts, relying on a version of the Court's "lowest common denominator" principle, have held just the opposite: They have entertained noncriminal aliens' habeas actions challenging removal orders. Chmakov v. Blackman, 266 F. 3d 210, 214-215 (CA3 2001); see also Riley v. INS, 310 F. 3d 1253, 1256 (CA10 2002); Liu v. INS, 293 F. 3d 36, 38-41 (CA2 2002). The logic in allowing noncriminal aliens, who have a right to judicial review of removal decisions, to take advantage of constitutional doubt that arises from precluding any avenue of judicial review for criminal aliens, see St. Cyr, supra, at 305, escapes me.