Mellouli v. LYNCH (575 U.S. 798)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 1, 2015 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 575 U.S. 798 · 135 S. Ct. 1980
- Docket
- No. 13-1034
- Argued
- January 14, 2015
- Decided
- June 1, 2015
- Term
- October Term 2014
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Ginsburg
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Scalia, Justice Kennedy, Justice Ginsburg (wrote), Justice Breyer, Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan
- Dissenting
- Justice Thomas (wrote), Justice Alito
Oral argument transcript and advocates · Opinion on Justia
Opinion excerpt
Justice GINSBURG delivered the opinion of the Court. This case requires us to decide how immigration judges should apply a deportation (removal) provision, defined with reference to federal drug laws, to an alien convicted of a state drug-paraphernalia misdemeanor. Lawful permanent resident Moones Mellouli, in 2010, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor offense under Kansas law, the possession of drug paraphernalia to "store, contain, conceal, inject, ingest, inhale or otherwise introduce a controlled substance into the human body." Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21-5709(b)(2) (2013 Cum. Supp.). The sole "paraphernalia" Mellouli was charged with possessing was a sock in which he had placed four orange tablets. The criminal charge and plea agreement did not identify the controlled substance involved, but Mellouli had acknowledged, prior to the charge and plea, that the tablets were Adderall. Mellouli was sentenced to a suspended term of 359 days and 12 months' probation. In February 2012, several months after Mellouli successfully completed probation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested him as deportable under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(B)(i) based on his Kansas misdemeanor conviction. Section 1227(a)(2)(B)(i) authorizes the removal of an alien "convicted of a violation of ... any law or regulation of a State, the United States, or a foreign country relating to a controlled…
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