Court Opinion

ID: 9574440
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:04:55.869907+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:44:34.404214
License: Public Domain

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge,
with whom ROVNER, WOOD and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges, join, dissenting from the denial of a rehearing en banc.
This case presents an important issue with respect to the scope of this court’s holding in Ali v. Gonzales, 502 F.3d 659 (7th Cir.2007). In Ali, we addressed our authority to hear appeals from the denial of a motion to continue — an interim decision that is discretionary in nature. 502 F.3d at 660. Here, however, the rationale of Ali is being applied beyond the realm of *542such a procedural ruling; it is being used to deny aliens review of a motion to reopen, a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals that is based on a mistake or misunderstanding of the factual basis of the claim. This expansion into the realm of outcome determinative decisions takes us a long way from the statutory language chosen and enacted by Congress. See 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(B)(i).
Applying Ali to deny aliens review of the decision whether to reopen crystalizes the importance of revisiting the breadth of that holding: The Supreme Court has analogized motions to reopen to motions under the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b), see Stone v. INS, 514 U.S. 386, 405, 115 S.Ct. 1537, 131 L.Ed.2d 465 (1995). Indeed, since the panel’s consideration of this ease, the Supreme Court has characterized motions to reopen as an “important safeguard” designed to “ensure a proper and lawful disposition.” Dada v. Muka-sey, ■ — ■ U.S. -, 128 S.Ct. 2307, 2322-24, 171 L.Ed.2d 178 (2008). This new holding of the Supreme Court should make us pause, take a deep breath and consider anew whether we really want to take the Circuit down a path so contrary to the manifest intent of Congress and to the Supreme Court’s understanding of that intent. If we take such a course, our decision will no doubt warrant close scrutiny by the Supreme Court. See Sup.Ct. R. 10.