Court Opinion

ID: 9469621
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:45:18.434373+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:28.833205
License: Public Domain

POOLE, Circuit Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur in the majority opinion’s conclusion that we are without jurisdiction to review the discretionary decision of the District Director refusing to reinstate Ghorbani’s nonimmigrant student status. However, I am unable to endorse the majority’s attempt to explain our prior decisions in this area using the gloss of “pendent jurisdiction.”
In Waziri v. INS, 392 F.2d 55 (9th Cir. 1968), we held that section 106(a) conferred jurisdiction on this court to review the validity of an order rescinding the petitioner’s permanent resident status even though that determination was made prior to petitioner’s section 242 deportation hearing. There is no indication in Waziri that the court relied on the concept of pendent jurisdiction. Instead, it concluded that the recission of Waziri’s status was the “logical predicate” of the deportation order and therefore meaningful review of the order would require that the court examine the earlier decision. 392 F.2d at 56-57. See also Bachelier v. INS, 625 F.2d 902 (9th Cir. 1980).
Shortly afterwards, the Supreme Court narrowly limited the scope of appeal under section 106(a). In Cheng Fan Kwok v. INS, 392 U.S. 206, 88 S.Ct. 1970, 20 L.Ed.2d 1037 (1968), the petitioner appealed the denial of his request for a stay of deportation filed after he had been found deportable in a section 242(b) proceeding. The Court held that the court of appeals did not have jurisdiction to review the decision denying the stay, stating:
We hold that the judicial review provisions of § 106(a) embrace only those determinations made during a proceeding conducted under § 242(b), including those determinations made incident to a motion to reopen such proceedings.
392 U.S. at 216, 88 S.Ct. at 1976.
Subsequently, in Chadha v. INS, 634 F.2d 408 (9th Cir. 1980), appeal pending, 454 U.S. 812, 102 S.Ct. 87, 70 L.Ed.2d 80 (1981), this court asserted jurisdiction under section 106(a) to review the constitutionality of a federal statute permitting congressional disapproval of decisions of the immigration judge suspending deportation. Relying on Waziri, the court observed that although the challenged congressional action took place outside the context of a section 242(b) hearing, it “nevertheless directly leads to a final order of deportation.” It concluded that jurisdiction existed to review the “legal validity of determinations on which the final order of deportation is contingent.” 634 F.2d at 413.
Although Chadha followed the Supreme Court’s decision in Cheng Fan Kwok, it does not rely on the dicta in that case which the majority here cites discussing the possibility of pendent jurisdiction. Instead, as indicated, this court concluded that meaningful review of the deportation order required review of decisions underlying the order. That rationale is in fact inconsistent with the generally recognized definition of a pendent claim as a “separate but parallel claim for relief” which a court may reach at its discretion. United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 722, 726, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 1136, 1139, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1966).
Chadha’s jurisdictional holding has been criticized as inconsistent with Cheng Fan Kwok in permitting review of decisions made outside the section 242(b) proceeding. See Dastmalchi v. INS, 660 F.2d 880, 888-89 (3d Cir. 1981).1 In my view that criticism is *793apt. Nevertheless, Chadha remains the law of the circuit until changed and I do not believe that the majority’s attempt to rationalize its holding as an example of pendent jurisdiction aids our determination here.
Applying the standard set out in Chadha, the deportation order here was “contingent upon” the District Director’s discretionary decision not to reinstate Ghorbani’s student status. Yet, as the majority opinion points out, Ghorbani’s objections to the Director’s decision were not addressed in a factual hearing before an immigration judge as in Waziri, nor are they purely questions of law, as in Chadha, which this court may reach directly. Thus the opinion is correct in concluding that the circumstances here do not fit into either of the situations which this court has identified as appropriate for review of discretionary decisions outside of a section 242(b) proceeding. It is for those reasons, only, that we have no jurisdiction under section 106(a) to review the District Director’s decision refusing to reinstate Ghorbani’s status. In sum I reach the same terminus as the majority opinion without taking what I consider is an unnecessary detour.

. Indeed, the jurisdictional issue, as well as the one-house veto question, are before the Supreme Court in the pending appeal. See 454 U.S. 812, 102 S.Ct. 87, 70 L.Ed.2d 80 (1981) (ordering parties to address the jurisdictional issue at oral argument).