Court Opinion

ID: 9483907
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:35:07.125781+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:54.631446
License: Public Domain

POOLE, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. While I sympathize with the majority’s desire to fashion the remedy it did, I believe that remedy has been forbidden us by INS v. Pangilinan, 486 U.S. 875, 108 S.Ct. 2210, 100 L.Ed.2d 882 (1988). There, the Supreme Court spoke plainly when it said: “Once it has been determined that a person does not qualify for citizenship, ... the district court has no discretion to ignore the defect and grant citizenship.” Id. at 884, 108 S.Ct. at 2216 (internal quotation marks omitted; quoting Fedorenko v. United States, 449 U.S. 490, 517, 101 S.Ct. 737, 752-53, 66 L.Ed.2d 686 (1981)). We are simply not empowered to confer citizenship as a remedy.
*1419I would reverse the district court’s decision.