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any alien convicted of an aggravated felony after entering the united states is deportable,ineligible for several forms of discretionary relief,and subject to expedited removal.a a iii.an aggravated felony is defined as any of numerous offenses listed in a,each of which is typically identified either as an offense desc... |
petitioner jorge luna torres luna,a lawful permanent resident,pleaded guilty in a new york court to attempted arson.when immigration officials discovered his conviction,they initiated removal proceedings.the immigration judge determined that luna arson conviction was for an aggravated felony and held that luna was ther... |
held a state offense counts as a a aggravated felony when it has every element of a listed federal crime except one requiring a connection to interstate or foreign commerce. |
because congress lacks general constitutional authority to punish crimes,most federal offenses include a jurisdictional element to tie the substantive crime to one of congress enumerated powers.state legislatures are not similarly constrained,and so state crimes do not need such a jurisdictional hook.that discrepancy c... |
a section a penultimate sentence shows that congress meant the term aggravated felony to capture serious crimes regardless of whether they are made illegal by the federal government,a state,or a foreign country.but luna view would substantially undercut that function by excluding from the act coverage all state and for... |
b the settled practice of distinguishing between substantive and jurisdictional elements in federal criminal statutes also supports reading a to include state analogues that lack only an interstate commerce requirement.congress uses substantive and jurisdictional elements for different reasons and does not expect them ... |
kagan,delivered the opinion of the court,in which roberts,and kennedy,ginsburg,and alito,joined.sotomayor,filed a dissenting opinion,in which thomas and breyer,joined. |
opinion of the court |
notice this opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the preliminary print of the united states reports.readers are requested to notify the reporter of decisions,supreme court of the united states,washington,of any typographical or other formal errors,in order that corrections may be made before the ... |
jorge luna torres,petitioner loretta lynch,attorney general |
on writ of certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the second circuit |
justice kagan delivered the opinion of the court. |
the immigration and nationality act ina or act imposes certain adverse immigration consequences on an alien convicted of an aggravated felony.the ina defines that term by listing various crimes,most of which are identified as offenses described in specified provisions of the federal criminal code.immediately following ... |
the ina makes any alien convicted of an aggravated felony after entering the united states deportable.see a a iii.such an alien is also ineligible for several forms of discretionary relief,including cancellation of removal an order allowing a deportable alien to remain in the country.see a.and because of his felony,the... |
the act defines the term aggravated felony by way of a long list of offenses,now codified at a.in all,that provision subparagraphs enumerate some different crimes.in more than half of those subparagraphs,congress specified the crimes by citing particular federal statutes.according to that common formulation,an offense ... |
petitioner jorge luna torres,who goes by the name george luna,immigrated to the united states as a child and has lived here ever since as a lawful permanent resident.in,he pleaded guilty to attempted arson in the third degree,in violation of new york law he was sentenced to one day in prison and five years of probation... |
the board of immigration appeals board affirmed,based on a comparison of the federal and new york arson statutes.see,at.the ina,as just noted,provides that an offense described in i,the federal arson and explosives statute,is an aggravated felony.section i,in turn,makes it a crime to maliciously damage or destroy,or at... |
the court of appeals for the second circuit denied luna petition for review of the board ruling.see.the court decision added to a circuit split over whether a state offense is an aggravated felony when it has all the elements of a listed federal crime except one requiring a connection to interstate commerce we granted ... |
the issue in this case arises because of the distinctive role interstate commerce elements play in federal criminal law.in our federal system,congress can not punish felonies generally,cohens virginia,wheat,it may enact only those criminal laws that are connected to one of its constitutionally enumerated powers,such as... |
for obvious reasons,state criminal laws do not include the jurisdictional elements common in federal statutes state legislatures,exercising their plenary police powers,are not limited to congress enumerated powers and so states have no reason to tie their substantive offenses to those grants of authority.see,united sta... |
both parties begin with the statutory text most directly at issue,disputing when a state offense here,arson is described in an enumerated federal statute here,i.luna,armed principally with black law dictionary,argues that described in means expressed or set forth in which,he says,requires the state offense to include e... |
but neither of those claims about the bare term described in can resolve this case.like many words,describe takes on different meanings in different contexts.consider two ways in which this court has used the word.in one case,describe conveyed exactness a contractual provision,we wrote,describes the subject matter with... |
here,two contextual considerations decide the matter.the first is a penultimate sentence,which shows that congress meant the term aggravated felony to capture serious crimes regardless of whether they are prohibited by federal,state,or foreign law.the second is a background principle distinguishing between substantive ... |
section a penultimate sentence,as noted above,provides the term aggravated felony applies to an offense described in this paragraph whether in violation of federal or state law and applies to such an offense in violation of the law of a foreign country for which the term of imprisonment was completed within the previou... |
luna view of described in would substantially undercut that function by excluding from the act coverage all state and foreign versions of any enumerated federal offense that like i contains an interstate commerce element.such an element appears in about half of a listed statutes defining,altogether,serious crimes yet u... |
indeed,luna view would limit the penultimate sentence effect in a peculiarly perverse fashion excluding state and foreign convictions for many of the gravest crimes listed in a,while reaching those convictions for less harmful offenses.consider some of the state and foreign crimes that would not count as aggravated fel... |
in an attempt to make some sense of his reading,luna posits that congress might have believed that crimes having an interstate connection are generally more serious than those lacking one for example,that interstate child pornography is worse than the intrastate variety.brief for petitioner.but to begin with,that theor... |
luna and the dissent,see post,at must therefore fall back on a different defense that his approach would exclude from the universe of aggravated felonies fewer serious state and foreign offenses than one might think.to make that argument,luna relies primarily on a part of the act specifying that the term aggravated fel... |
luna argument does not reassure us.we agree that state counterparts of some enumerated federal offenses would qualify as aggravated felonies through the crime of violence provision.but not nearly all such offenses,and not even the worst ones.consider again some of the listed offenses described earlier.see supra,at.the ... |
just as important,a settled practice of distinguishing between substantive and jurisdictional elements of federal criminal laws supports reading a to include state analogues lacking an interstate commerce requirement.as already explained,the substantive elements of a federal statute describe the evil congress seeks to ... |
consider the law respecting mens rea.in general,courts interpret criminal statutes to require that a defendant possess a mens rea,or guilty mind,as to every element of an offense.see elonis united states,slip,at.that is so even when the statute by its terms does not contain any demand of that kind.united states video.i... |
except when it comes to jurisdictional elements.there,this court has stated,the existence of the fact that confers federal jurisdiction need not be one in the mind of the actor at the time he perpetrates the act made criminal by the federal statute.united states feola,see united states yermian,jurisdictional language n... |
still more strikingly,courts have distinguished between the two kinds of elements in contexts,similar to this one,in which the judicial task is to compare federal and state offenses.the assimilative crimes act aca,a,subjects federal enclaves,like military bases,to state criminal laws except when they punish the same co... |
and lower courts have uniformly adopted the same approach when comparing federal and state crimes in order to apply the federal statute.that law imposes mandatory life imprisonment on a person convicted on three separate occasions of a serious violent felony.c.sounding very much like the ina,the statute defines such a ... |
luna objects to drawing that line on the ground that it is too hard to tell the difference between the two.see brief for petitioner discussing,in particular,statutes criminalizing the destruction of federal property and sending threats via the postal service.but that contention collides with the judicial experience jus... |
luna makes a final argument opposing our reading of a if congress had meant for ordinary crimes like arson to count as aggravated felonies,it would have drafted the provision to make that.brief for petitioner.congress,luna submits,would have used the generic term for those crimes,arson rather than demanding that the st... |
but as an initial matter,congress may have had good reason to think that a statutory reference would capture more accurately than a generic label the range of state convictions warranting automatic deportation.the clause of a applying to luna case well illustrates the point.by referring to i,that provision incorporates... |
still more,congress omission of statutory language specifically directing courts to ignore those elements can not tip the scales in luna favor.we have little doubt that congress could have drafted a with more precision than it did.graham county soil water conservation dist.united states ex rel.wilson.but the same could... |
that reading of a resolves this case.luna has acknowledged that the new york arson law differs from the listed federal statute,i,in only one respect it lacks an interstate commerce element.see pet.for cert.and luna nowhere contests that i commerce element featuring the terms in interstate or foreign commerce and affect... |
it is so ordered. |
sotomayor,dissenting |
jorge luna torres,petitioner loretta lynch,attorney general |
on writ of certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the second circuit |
justice sotomayor,with whom justice thomas and justice breyer join,dissenting. |
the immigration and nationality act ina metes out severe immigration consequences to a noncitizen convicted of any of a number of aggravated felon ies.a.an offense described in i a federal arson statute qualifies as such a crime. |
in this case,petitioner,who goes by george luna,was convicted of arson under penal law ann.west,which punishes anyone who intentionally damages,by starting a fire or causing an explosion,a building or motor vehicle.by contrast,the federal arson statute,i,applies when someone maliciously damages or destroys,by means of ... |
not for the majority.it dubs the fifth element jurisdictional,then relies on contextual clues to read it out of the statute altogether.as a result of the majority sleuthing,luna a legal permanent resident is foreclosed from even appealing to the sound discretion of the attorney general to obtain relief from removal.bec... |
noncitizens convicted of crimes face various consequences under the ina.among the harshest of those consequences fall on noncitizens convicted of of the approximately aggravated felonies.a crime that falls into one of the listed provisions can be an aggravated felony whether in violation of federal or state law or in v... |
an aggravated felony conviction has two primary repercussions for noncitizens it renders them deportable,a a iii,and it makes them categorically ineligible for several forms of immigration relief ordinarily left to the discretion of the attorney general.see,a b cancellation of removal. |
the dozens of aggravated felonies in the ina are specified in two main ways.first,some are specified by reference to a generic crime.it is an aggravated felony,for instance,to commit murder,rape,or sexual abuse of a minor.a a.some of those crimes use a federal definition as one of the elements.for example illicit traff... |
second,it lists crimes that are wholly described in the federal criminal code.see,a h an offense described in section,or of title relating to the demand for or receipt of ransom a i an offense described in section,or of title relating to child pornography the government contends that luna committed a crime in this seco... |
in,luna was found removable from the united states.he attempted to apply for cancellation of removal,a form of relief available to legal permanent residents at the discretion of the attorney general.a.nothing in luna history would otherwise preclude cancellation.he was the sole source of financial support for his citiz... |
but the immigration judge found and the board of immigration appeals and the second circuit confirmed that luna was ineligible for cancellation of removal.luna new york state arson conviction,the judge held,qualified as an aggravated felony under the provision for an offense described in i,a federal arson statute.see a... |
but the offense of which luna was convicted is not described in i.this court ordinary method of interpreting the aggravated felony statute,the plain text of that provision,and the structure of the ina all confirm as much. |
this is not the first time the court has been tasked with determining whether a state offense constitutes an aggravated felony under the ina.until today,the court has always required the state offense to match every element of the listed aggravated felony.kawashima holder,slip,at see also moncrieffe holder,slip,at hold... |
our ordinary methodology thus confirms that the federal arson statute does not describe the new york arson statute under which luna was convicted.as i have outlined above,see supra,at,the federal statute is more limited it applies only to fires that involve interstate or foreign commerce.the state statute contains no s... |
the plain language of the statute supports this straightforward approach.the word describe means to express,portray,or represent.see black law dictionary ed.webster third new international dictionary.a description may be detailed or it may be general,setting forth only the recognizable features,or characteristic marks,... |
however,even the most general description can not refer to features that the thing being described does not have.the ad is only an accurate description if the apartment described in it has at least the five features listed.if the apartment only has four of the five listed features there is no rooftop access,say,or the ... |
so,too,with the statutes in this case.the federal description can be general as long as it is still accurate that is,as long as the state law has at least all of the elements in the federal law.but there is no meaning of describe that allows the court to say i describes the new york offense when the new york offense on... |
the structure of the ina confirms that conclusion and makes clear that we need not contort the ordinary,accepted meaning of the phrase described in.the ina has many overlapping provisions that assign carefully calibrated consequences to various types of criminal convictions.the court thus need not interpret any provisi... |
that overlapping structure is apparent throughout the ina.first,the aggravated felony list itself has multiple provisions.most serious offenses,for instance,will qualify as crime s of violence for which the term of imprisonment is at least one year,a f,even if they are not covered by a more specific provision in the ag... |
second,other sections of the ina provide intertwining coverage for serious crimes.some examples of provisions that encompass many offenses include those for the commission of a crime involving moral turpitude,a firearms offense,or a controlled substance offense,all of which will render a noncitizen removable,even if he... |
and finally,in luna case or anyone else,the attorney general can exercise her discretion to deny relief to a serious criminal whether or not that criminal has been convicted of an aggravated felony.see,at doubting that a narrow reading of a will have any practical effect on policing our nation borders |
to be sure,on luna reading,some serious conduct may not be captured by the ina.but not nearly so much as the majority suggests.by contrast,once the aggravated felony statute applies to a noncitizen,no provision in the ina and virtually no act by the attorney general can prevent him or her from being removed. |
looking for consistency in the aggravated felony provisions of the ina is often a fool errand.see kawashima,at,slip,at,ginsburg,dissenting noting the absurdity of making a tax misdemeanor,but not driving while drunk and causing serious bodily injury,an aggravated felony.but the structure of the ina gives the court no r... |
the majority denies luna the opportunity to present his case to the attorney general based on two contextual considerations,ante,at,and an intuition about how the statute ought to work.none are sufficiently persuasive to overcome the most natural reading of the aggravated felony statute. |
the majority first perceives a conflict between luna reading of the ina and what it calls the penultimate sentence of the aggravated felony statute.the penultimate sentence provides that an offense can be an aggravated felony whether in violation of federal or state law or in violation of the law of a foreign country.a... |
it is true that,on luna reading,some of the aggravated felonies listed in the ina including an offense described in i will have no state or foreign analog.but the proviso still applies to generic offenses,which constitute nearly half of the entries in the aggravated felony list.see,a a,g,m i.and that portion jumps to c... |
and the majority must admit that its interpretation will also leave entries in the section with no state or foreign analogs.for instance,it seems unlikely that the proviso contemplates state analogs for the aggravated felony provisions regarding treason,levying war against the united states,or disclosing national defen... |
in other words,under luna reading,the penultimate sentence applies to most,but not all,of the entries of the aggravated felony statute under the majority reading,the penultimate sentence also applies to most,but not all,of the entries of the aggravated felony statute.the majority first contextual consideration thus sup... |
just as important,the majority suggests,is a settled practice of distinguishing between substantive elements those that define the evil congress seeks to prevent and jurisdictional element s,which merely establis h legislative authority.ante,at.the majority admits that the court does not distinguish between substantive... |
none of the three examples that the majority proffers is evidence of such a strong norm.first,the majority invokes our rules for interpreting criminal statutes.ante,at.whereas our general assumption is that a defendant must know each fact making his conduct illegal,courts generally hold that a criminal defendant need n... |
but jurisdictional elements are not the only elements a defendant need not know.under the default rule,ante,at,for interpreting public welfare offenses,courts have held that a defendant need not know that the substance he possesses is a narcotic,that the device he possesses is unregistered,or that he reentered the unit... |
the majority next points to two of the many statutes that,like the ina,require comparing the elements of federal and state offenses.but in each case,it is the statute language and context,not some settled practice,ante,at,that command the omission of the jurisdictional element. |
the majority first example,ante,at,is the assimilative crimes act,a,a statute that incorporates state criminal law into federal enclaves if the act or omission is not made punishable by any enactment of congress but would be punishable if committed or omitted within the jurisdiction of the state.the court held that,in ... |
the majority analogy to the federal three strikes statute,c f,ante,at,is similarly unhelpful.that provision counts as a predicate serious violent felony any federal or state offense wherever committed,consisting of various crimes,including several as described in federal statutes.ante,at.emphasis added.though this cour... |
moreover,in other statutes where congress wants to exclude jurisdictional elements when comparing state and federal offenses,it ordinarily just says so.see,e a requiring detention of defendant pending trial if the person has been convicted of a state or local offense that would have been an offense described in subsect... |
finally,the majority suggests that it would be peculiarly perverse,ante,at,to adopt luna reading of the statute because it would draw a distinction among crimes based on a jurisdictional element that the majority assumes is wholly divorced from the evil congress seeks to prevent,ante,at.the jurisdictional element of a ... |
for instance,the majority assumes that it would not be plausible,ante,at,for congress to have thought that interstate crimes are worse than wholly intrastate crimes.perhaps.but when faced with an offense that,like arson,admits of a range of conduct,from the minor to the serious,congress could plausibly have concluded t... |
that is because,far from being token,conventional jurisdictional elements serve to narrow the kinds of crimes that can be prosecuted,not just to specify the sovereign that can do the prosecuting.take the federal statute at issue in this case.section i requires that the property destroyed be used in interstate commerce.... |
the difference between an offense under penal law ann.and an offense under i is thus more than a technical consideration about which authority chooses to prosecute.it is a difference that goes to the magnitude and nature of the evil,ante,at,itself. |
on the majority reading,legal permanent residents with convictions for minor state offenses are foreclosed from even appealing to the mercy of the attorney general.against our standard method for comparing statutes and the text and structure of the ina,the majority stacks a supposed superfluity,a practice,and its convi... |
compare holder,finding an aggravated felony in that circumstance spacek holder,same nieto hernandez holder,same mukasey,same united states,same,with bautista attorney general,declining to find an aggravated felony. |
that flat statement is infinitesimally shy of being wholly true.we have found a handful of state criminal laws with an interstate commerce element,out of the tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of state crimes on the books.mississippi,for example,lifted essentially verbatim the text of the federal money laundering st... |
black law dictionary ed.defining describe as to express,explain,set forth,relate,recount,narrate,depict,delineate,portray luna also cites webster new collegiate dictionary,which defines describe to mean to represent or give an account of in words. |
see american heritage dictionary of the english language ed.defining describe as t o convey an idea or impression of webster third new international dictionary defining describe as to convey an image or notion of or trace or traverse the outline of |
the dissent disagrees,contending that the word describe decides this case in luna favor because a description can not refer to features that the thing being described does not have.post,at opinion of sotomayor.says the dissent if a craigslist ad describes an apartment as having an laundry,a dishwasher,rooftop access,ce... |
see a d an offense described in which criminalizes laundering of monetary instruments ibid.an offense described in which criminalizes engaging in monetary transactions involving property derived from specified unlawful activities a e i three offense s described in h i,d,which criminalize activities involving explosives... |
the dissent replies what the big deal see post,at.after all,it reasons,some listed federal statutes specifically,those prohibiting treason,levying war against the united states,and disclosing national defense information will lack state or foreign analogues even under our construction.see ibid.but congress inclusion of... |
luna position,in addition to producing this bizarre patchwork of coverage,conflicts with our ordinary assumption that congress,when drafting a statute,gives each provision independent meaning.see united states butler,these words can not be meaningless,else they would not have been used until its most recent amendment,a... |
the dissent attempts a variant of luna not so serious argument,but to no better effect.claims the dissent even if congress could not have viewed interstate crimes as worse than wholly intrastate crimes,it might have thought that,say,arsons prosecuted as federal crimes are more uniformly serious than arsons prosecuted a... |
in all those states,arsons of every description whether of one own or another property would fall outside the crime of violence provision.see tr.of oral arg,solicitor general noting that the categorical approach to comparing federal and state crimes produces that effect.and contrary to the dissent suggestion,post,at,th... |
the dissent embraces those consequences,arguing that a narrow reading of aggravated felony would make more convicted criminals removable under other statutory provisions,all of which allow for relief at the attorney general discretion.see post,at,lamenting that aliens convicted of aggravated felonies may not even appea... |
the dissent declares our discussion of the law,the assimilative crime act aca,and mens rea unhelpful on the ground that all three contexts are somehow differ ent.post,at.but what makes them relevantly so the dissent fails to explain.first,the dissent errs in suggesting that the uniform judicial interpretation of the la... |
many of the majority own examples of the gravest state offenses supposedly excluded from the aggravated felony list by luna reading actually fall within these provisions.ante,at.many state arsons will qualify as crime s of violence under a f,see,mbea gonzales,an even greater fraction of the most serious arsons will fal... |
and even under the majority reading,a conviction will only qualify as an aggravated felony if the right state charge is filed.ante,at.for example,even on the majority reading,a defendant who sells a child for purposes of child pornography is unlikely to be convicted of an offense described in,see a i.that is because vi... |
other crimes in the majority list of serious offenses,ante,at,will be covered by these separate ina provisions.for example,the board of immigration appeals has held that any child pornography offense |
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