Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/351/345/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-06-24 08:49:36
Document Index: 583026526

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 244', '§ 244', '§ 244', '§ 244', '§ 244', '§ 244', '§ 244', '§ 244', '§ 235', '§ 1225', '§ 235', '§ 235', '§ 236', '§ 1226', '§ 244', '§ 242', '§ 242', '§ 242', '§ 1254', '§ 244', '§ 137', '§ 137', '§ 244', '§ 1254']

JAY V. BOYD, 351 U. S. 345 - Volume 351 - 1956 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
US Supreme Court Center > Volume 351 > JAY V. BOYD, 351 U. S. 345 (1956) > Full Text
(d) Section 244 (c), which requires the Attorney General to file with Congress "a complete and detailed statement of the facts"
In 1953, upon motion of petitioner, the deportation order was withdrawn for the purpose of allowing petitioner to seek discretionary relief from the Attorney General under § 244(a)(5) of the Act. The application for
suspension of deportation was filed and a hearing thereon was held before a special inquiry officer of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. [Footnote 3] The special inquiry officer found petitioner to be qualified for suspension of deportation [Footnote 4] -- that is, found that petitioner met the statutory prerequisites to the favorable exercise of the discretionary relief. [Footnote 5] But the special inquiry officer decided the case for suspension did not "warrant favorable
action" in view of certain "confidential information." [Footnote 6] The Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed an appeal, basing its decision "[u]pon a full consideration of the evidence of record and in light of the confidential information available." [Footnote 7] Thus, the Board in considering the appeal reviewed the undisclosed information as well as the evidence on the open record. Petitioner then commenced the present habeas corpus action.
As previously noted, § 244(a)(5) of the Act provides that the Attorney General "may in his discretion" suspend deportation of any deportable alien who meets certain statutory requirements relating to moral character, hardship, and period of residence within the United States. If the Attorney General does suspend deportation under that provision, he must file, pursuant to § 244(c), "a complete and detailed statement of the facts and pertinent provisions of law in the" case with Congress, giving "the reasons for such suspension." So far as pertinent here, deportation finally cancels only if Congress affirmatively approves the suspension by a favorable concurrent resolution within a specified period of time. There is no express statutory grant of any right to a hearing on an application to the Attorney General for discretionary suspension of deportation. For purposes of effectuating these statutory provisions, the Attorney General adopted regulations delegating his authority under § 244 of the Act to special inquiry officers; [Footnote 8] giving the alien the right to apply to suspension during a deportation hearing; [Footnote 9] putting the burden on the applicant to establish the statutory requirements for eligibility for suspension; [Footnote 10] allowing the alien applicant to submit any evidence in support of his application; [Footnote 11] requiring the special inquiry officer to present
It is urged upon the Court that the confidential information regulation is invalid because inconsistent with § 244 of the Act. In support of this claim, petitioner argues that § 244 implicitly requires the Attorney General to give a hearing on applications for suspension of deportation. It is then said that this statutory right is nullified and rendered illusory by the challenged regulation,
Eligibility for the relief here involved is governed by specific statutory standards which provide a right to a ruling on an applicant's eligibility. However, Congress did not provide statutory standards for determining who, among qualified applicants for suspension, should receive the ultimate relief. That determination is left to the sound discretion of the Attorney General. The statute says that, as to qualified deportable aliens, the Attorney General "may, in his discretion" suspend deportation. [Footnote 15]
It does not restrict the considerations which may be relied upon or the procedure by which the discretion should be exercised. Although such aliens have been given a right to a discretionary determination on an application for suspension, cf. Accardi v. Shaughnessy, 347 U. S. 260, a grant thereof is manifestly not a matter of right under any circumstances, but rather is in all cases a matter of grace. Like probation or suspension of criminal sentence, it "comes as an act of grace", Escoe v. Zerbst, 295 U. S. 490, 295 U. S. 492, and "cannot be demanded as a right," Berman v. United States, 302 U. S. 211, 302 U. S. 213. [Footnote 16] And this unfettered discretion of the Attorney General with respect to suspension of deportation is analogous to the Board of Parole's powers to release federal prisoners on parole. [Footnote 17] Even if we assume that Congress has given to qualified applicants for suspension of deportation a right to offer evidence to the Attorney General in support of their applications, the similarity between the discretionary powers vested in the
Attorney General by § 244(a) of the Act, on the one hand, and judicial probation power and executive parole power, on the other hand, leads to a conclusion that § 244 gives no right to the kind of a hearing on a suspension application which contemplates full disclosure of the considerations entering into a decision. Clearly there is no statutory right to that kind of a hearing on a request for a grant of probation after criminal conviction in the federal courts. [Footnote 18] Nor is there such a right with respect to an application for parole. [Footnote 19] Since, as we hold, the Attorney
Petitioner also points to § 235(c) of the Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1225(c), which specifically authorizes the Attorney General to determine under some circumstances that an alien is excludable "on the basis of information of a confidential nature." [Footnote 20] It is argued from this that, had Congress intended to permit the use of confidential information in rulings upon applications for suspension of deportation, it would have expressly so provided in language as specific as that used in § 235(c). The difficulty with this argument is that § 235(c) is an exception to an express statutory mandate under § 236(a) of the Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), that determinations of admissibility
It is next argued that, even if the confidential information regulation is not inconsistent with § 244(a), it nevertheless should be held invalid. Emphasizing that Congress did not, in terms, authorize such a procedure, petitioner contends that the Act should be construed to provide a right to a hearing because only such a construction would be consistent with the "tradition and principles of free government." [Footnote 21] On its face, this is an attractive argument. Petitioner urges that, in view of the severity of the result flowing from a denial of suspension of deportation, we should interpret the statute by resolving all doubts in the applicant's favor. Cf. United States v. Minker, 350 U. S. 179, 350 U. S. 187-188. But we must adopt the plain meaning of a statute, however severe the consequences. Cf. Galvan v. Press, 347 U. S. 522, 347 U. S. 528. As we have already stated, suspension of deportation is not given to deportable aliens as a right, but, by congressional direction, it is dispensed according to the unfettered
Our conclusion in this case is strongly supported by prior decisions of this Court. In both Knauff v. Shaughnessy, 338 U. S. 537, and Shaughnessy v. Mezei, 345 U. S. 206, we upheld a regulation of the Attorney General calling for the denial of a hearing in exclusion cases where the Attorney General determined that an alien was excludable
Concluding that the challenged regulation is not inconsistent with the Act, we must look to petitioner's claim that the use of undisclosed confidential information is unlawful because inconsistent with related regulations governing suspension of deportation procedures. As previously noted, an application for suspension is considered as part of the "hearing" to determine deportability. 8 CFR, Rev.1952, §§ 242.53(c) and 242.54(d); and see 8 CFR, Rev.1952, § 242.5. The alien is entitled to "submit any evidence in support of his application which he believes should be considered by the special inquiry officer." 8 CFR, Rev.1952, § 242.54(d). The hearing to determine deportability, during which the suspension
This same rationale leads us to conclude that the requirement of a decision containing "reasons" is fully complied with by a statement to the effect that the application has been denied on the basis of confidential information, the disclosure of which would be prejudicial to the public interest, safety or security. Section 244.3 says
In the interest of humanity, the Congress, in order to relieve some of the harshness of the immigration laws, gave the Attorney General discretion to relieve hardship in deportation cases. I do not believe it was "an unfettered discretion," as stated in the opinion. It was an administrative discretion calling for a report to Congress on the manner of its use. The Attorney General, recognizing this, rightfully provided for an administrative hearing for the exercise of that discretion. On the other hand, he provided by his regulation that his numerous
This is a strange case in a country dedicated by its founders to the maintenance of liberty under law. The petitioner, Cecil Reginald Jay, is being banished because he was a member of the Communist Party from 1935 to 1940. His Communist Party membership at that time did not violate any law. The Party was recognized then
Even though an alien has been found to be deportable, Congress has provided a procedure which he can invoke to have his deportation suspended. 66 Stat. 163, 214-216, 8 U.S.C. §§ 1254(a)(5), 1254(c). He is entitled to suspension "in the discretion" of the Attorney General if he "proves" that, during the preceding 10 years, he has been a person of good moral character and if deportation would result in exceptional and unusual hardship. The language of the statute plainly shows that an alien must be given an opportunity to "prove" these things if he can. This, of course, means that he must have a full and fair hearing. Jay asked to be allowed to give such proof, and in fact proved his case to the complete satisfaction of the hearing officer who passed on it. But the hearing officer, "after considering confidential information," refused to suspend deportation. The Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed Jay's appeal.
I agree with The CHIEF JUSTICE, MR. JUSTICE FRANKFURTER and MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS that the Attorney General's regulation authorizing Jay and others like him to be deported upon alleged anonymous information should be held invalid as beyond the statutory power of the Attorney General. But a majority of the Court holds otherwise. This makes it necessary to consider the constitutionality of the use of anonymous information for such a purpose. In Footnote 21 of its opinion the Court states, somewhat as an aside, that "the constitutionality of § 244 as herein interpreted gives us no difficulty." In this easy fashion, the Court disposes of a challenge to the power of Congress to banish people
The Court today is not content with allowing exile on the basis of anonymous gossip. It holds that the hearing officer who condemned Jay could act in his "unfettered discretion," subject only to review by the Board of Immigration Appeals. Of course, the Court refers to the
Unfortunately, this case is not the first one in recent years where arbitrary power has been approved and where anonymous information has been used to take away vital rights and privileges of people. [Footnote 2/5] The Court disposes of what has been done to Jay to its satisfaction by saying that his right to stay here if he proves he is a good
No amount of legal reasoning by the Court and no rationalization that can be devised can disguise the fact that the use of anonymous information to banish people is not consistent with the principles of a free country. Unfortunately, there are some who think that the way to save freedom in this country is to adopt the techniques of tyranny. One technique which is always used to maintain absolute power in totalitarian governments is the use of anonymous information by government against those who are obnoxious to the rulers. [Footnote 2/6] In connection with another case like this, [Footnote 2/7] I referred to a statement made by the Roman Emperor Trajan to Pliny the Younger around the end of the First Century. Rome
It was also foreign to the brave spirit of the American age that gave birth to our constitutional system of courts, with their comprehensive safeguards for fair public trials. In those courts, a defendant's fate is to be determined by independent judges and juries who hear evidence given by witnesses in their presence and in the presence of the accused. [Footnote 2/9] But this case shows how far we have departed from the carefully conceived plan to safeguard individual liberty. Although the Court today pays lip service to judicial review, a hearing officer's condemnation of Jay is held final and unreviewable. His condemnation is in open defiance of all the public testimony given, and rests exclusively on "confidential information" he claims to have received from unrevealed sources. Unfortunately, this condemnation of Jay on anonymous information is not unusual-it manifests the popular fashion in these days of fear. Legal rationalizations [Footnote 2/10] have been contrived
to shift trials from constitutional courts to temporary removable appointees like the hearing officer who decided against Jay. [Footnote 2/11] And, when an accused rises to defend himself before such an officer, he is met by a statement that "We have evidence that you are guilty of something, but we cannot tell you what, nor who gave us the evidence." If, taking the Bill of Rights seriously, he complains, he is met by the rather impatient rejoinder that the Government's safety would be jeopardized by according him the kind of trial the Constitution commands. [Footnote 2/12] But the core of our constitutional system is
Since the petitioner was found deportable under the Act of Oct. 16, 1918, 40 Stat. 1012, 8 U.S.C. § 137, as amended, 64 Stat. 1006, 1008, 8 U.S.C. (1946 ed., Supp. V) § 137-3, his deportation would follow automatically had not Congress, in § 244(a)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, Entrusted the Attorney General with the power of relaxing this dire consequence by suspending the deportation. 66 Stat. 163, 214, 8 U.S.C. § 1254(a)(5). This the Attorney General is authorized to do if the petitioner has been present in the United States for at least ten years since the grounds for his deportation arose, if he can prove that, during all of such period, he has been and is a person of good moral character, and, finally, if his deportation would, in the opinion of the Attorney General, "result in exceptional and extremely
One is not unmindful of the fact that the Attorney General is burdened with a vast range of duties, and that he, too, has only twenty-four hours in a day. To be sure, one of his predecessors in the administration of our immigration laws, President Taft's Secretary of Commerce and Labor, himself examined every deportation file in which
For me, the philosophy embodied in these remarks rules the situation before us. The petitioner sustained the burden which the statute put upon him to prove himself deserving to remain in this country and to save his family from being disrupted. On the record, the Attorney General's special inquiry officer found that the respondent "appears to be qualified for suspension of deportation," and this finding was not upset on appeal. But this finding for the petitioner was nullified on the basis of some "confidential information." The petitioner had no means of meeting this "confidential information." We can take judicial notice of the fact that, in conspicuous instances, not negligible in number, such "confidential information" has turned out to be either baseless or false. There is no reason to believe that only these conspicuous instances illustrate the hazards inherent in taking action affecting the lives of fellow men on the basis of such information. The probabilities are to the contrary. A system of administrative law cannot justify itself on the assumption that the " confidential information" available
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