SCOTUS to hear immigration/reentry argument, Jan. 18
– Penn Law’s Bibas to argue for petitioner in Vartelas v. Holder, assisted by students in Penn’s Supreme Court Legal Clinic –
Philadelphia, PA – January 10, 2012 – On Wednesday, January 18 the U.S. Supreme Court will hear argument in Vartelas v. Holder, to decide whether the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which strips lawful permanent residents of the United States of the right to travel abroad briefly and be guaranteed reentry, can be applied retroactively to a green-card holder who pleaded guilty to an offense before 1996 and traveled abroad thereafter.
Stephanos Bibas, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the director of Penn Law’s Supreme Court Legal Clinic, will argue the case for Panagis Vartelas, a green-card holder and native of Greece currently fighting deportation, who was detained at New York’s Kennedy Airport in 2003 upon returning from a family visit overseas. Mr. Vartelas, a Queens businessman, pleaded guilty in 1994 to a minor role in a counterfeiting scheme – a crime that prior to the 1996 Act wasn’t cause for deportation if he left the country and attempted reentry – but the Immigration Act made even convictions for minor offenses a cause for deportation, to be applied even before the law came into force.
Of note, Professor Bibas has been assisted in the case by students in Penn Law’s Supreme Court Clinic, who have helped conduct research, draft the brief of the petitioner, and prepare strategy.Vartelas is Bibas and the Supreme Court Clinic’s third case to go to oral argument this past year. In 2011 Bibas argued Turner v. Rogers and Tapia v. United States before the Supreme Court.
For more information on Vartelas and links to opinions and briefs filed in the case, see SCOTUSblog. For more information on Penn Law’s Supreme Court Clinic, see the Law School’s website.
Contact:
Steven Barnes

Phone: 215.573.5181
sbarnes@law.upenn.edu
EQ