Court Opinion

ID: 9494382
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:36:50.192099+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:23.210672
License: Public Domain

ROTH, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I cannot agree with the majority that the Supreme Court’s decision in St. Cyr or, indeed, that the United States Constitution compels the District Court to entertain the Chmakovs’ habeas corpus petition, given that the legal questions raised by the denial of the Chmakovs’ petition for asylum could have been answered in the course of a direct appeal.1 The failure on the part of the Chmakovs to seek judicial review, whatever the cause, be it ineffective counsel or another reason, is not comparable to the nonexistence of an avenue to seek review. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.
The majority correctly points out that the Supreme Court cited two principal considerations underlying its decision to preserve the writ of habeas for the petitioner in St. Cyr: (i) “the strong presumption in favor of judicial review of administrative action” and (ii) “the longstanding rule requiring a clear statement of congressional intent to repeal habeas jurisdiction.” St. Cyr, — U.S. at, 121 S.Ct. at 2278. The former requirement amounts to an admonition not to violate the Suspension Clause; Congress can, of course, divest the district courts of habeas jurisdiction without violating the Suspension Clause so long as it provides petitioners with another avenue of review (“ ‘a collateral remedy which is neither inadequate nor ineffective to test the legality of a person’s detention,’ ”) Liang, 206 F.3d at 321 (quoting Swain v. Pressley, 430 U.S. 372, 381, 97 S.Ct. 1224, 51 L.Ed.2d 411 (1977)). However, my reading of St. Cyr leads me to conclude that the former requirement — the *217presumption in favor of judicial review-— far outstrips the latter in importance. Consequently, I conclude that the majority relies too heavily on the clear statement requirement and that it errs in treating that requirement as an independent factor on an equal footing with the existence of an avenue to seek judicial review. ■
The language of St. Cyr repeatedly suggests, in keeping with the 'Suspension Clause, that where the petitioner has available to him an alternate avenue of review, the writ of habeas corpus simply need not be available. In its discussion of the Suspension Clause, the St. Cyr Court articulated the touchstone of that Constitutional provision: “Because of that Clause, some ‘judicial intervention in deportation cases’ is unquestionably ‘required by the Constitution.’ ” St. Cyr, — U.S. at 121 S.Ct. at 2279 (quoting Heikkila v. Barber, 345 U.S. 229, 235, 73 S.Ct. 603, 97 L.Ed. 972 (1953)). The Court stressed the importance of the availability of alternative methods of review later in its discussion of the Suspension Clause, presenting that factor as the sine qua non of its analysis: “a serious Suspension Clause issue would be presented if we were to -accept the INS’s submission that the 1996 statutes have withdrawn that power from federal judges and provided no adequate substitute for its exercise.” St. Cyr, — U.S. at -, 121 S.Ct. at 2282 (citing Hart, The Power of Congress to Limit the Jurisdiction of Federal Courts: An Exercise in Dialectic, 66 Harv.L.Rev. 1362, 1395-1397 (1953)).
Later in the opinion, the St. Cyr Court again characterized the availability of an alternative judicial forum as the principal, if not single, factor in its decision: “If it were clear that the question of law could be answered in' another judicial forum, it might be permissible to accept the INS’ reading of § 1252.” St. Cyr, — U.S. at -, 121 S.Ct. at 2287. The Court then cited that factor, “coupled with” the lack of a clear Congressional statement stripping the courts of jurisdiction, in declining to rule that habeas jurisdiction had been repealed. Id. Consequently, it seems that the clear statement requirement is a consideration at most secondary to the forum availability requirement.
Quité apart from its justification in the language of the St. Cyr decision, this interpretation is firmly rooted in logic. Whereas the alternative forum rule is based upon the Suspension Clause and is therefore of constitutional magnitude, the clear statement requirement is simply an expression of two familiar canons of construction and is therefore of lesser import. As the St. Cyr Court said of the clear statement rule,
First, ... when a particular interpretation of a statute invokes the outer limits of Congress’ power, we expect a clear indication that Congress intended that result. See Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. v. Florida Gulf Coast Building & Constr. Trades Council, 485 U.S. 568, 575, 108 S.Ct. 1392, 99 L.Ed.2d 645 (1988). Second, if an otherwise acceptable construction of a statute would raise serious constitutional problems, and where an alternative interpretation of the statute, is “fairly possible,” see Crowell v. Benson, 285 U.S. 22, 62, 52 S.Ct. 285, 76 L.Ed. 598 (1932), we are obligated to construe the statute to avoid such problems. See Ashwander v. TVA 297 U.S. 288, 341, 345-48, 56 S.Ct. 466, 80 L.Ed. 688 (1936) (Brandeis, J., concurring); United States ex rel. Attorney General v. Delaware & Hudson Co., 213 U.S. 366, 408, 29 S.Ct. 527, 53 L.Ed. 836 (1909).
St. Cyr, — U.S. at-, 121 S.Ct. at 2279 (emendation added).
These observations, together with the passages of the St: Cyr opinion cited su-*218pm, suggest that the “fact that there is no Suspension Clause problem” does in fact “end the inquiry.” Majority Opinion at 214-15. Thus, contrary to the majority’s view, the principal argument offered by the INS in this case — that an explicit statement of intent to repeal habeas jurisdiction should only be required where the repeal might lead to a violation of the Suspension Clause — is consonant with the Supreme Court’s decision in St. Cyr.
For the foregoing reasons, I would affirm the decision of the District Court finding that it lacked jurisdiction to grant the Chmakovs habeas relief.