Court Opinion

ID: 9428960
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:25:18.65491+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:16.493717
License: Public Domain

Justice Marshall,
dissenting.
I dissent from the Court’s summary reversal of the Court of Appeals. The Court concedes that the INS’s 18-month delay in processing respondent’s application “was indeed long,” but concludes that it “cannot say in the absence of evidence to the contrary that the delay was unwarranted.” Ante, at 18. The Court relies on a presumption of regularity which it says attends the official acts of public officers. Ibid. In view of the unusual delay in the processing of respondent’s application, I do not agree that this case should be summarily disposed of on the basis of this convenient presumption. If the Court believes, as I do not, that this case raises an issue of sufficient importance to justify the exercise of our certio-*20rari jurisdiction, and if the Court also believes that oral argument should be dispensed with, I would at least notify the parties that the Court is considering a summary disposition, so that they may have an opportunity to submit briefs on the merits.