Breaking News: Supreme Court Decides that Cancellation of Removal Case Subject to Judicial Review
Photo courtesy of U.S. Supreme Court website
Today, the Supreme Court decided Wilkinson v. Garland. Justice Sotomayor delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Justices Kagan,
Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett. Justice Jackson filed an opinion concurring in the judgment. Chief Justice Roberts filed a dissenting opinion. Justice Alito filed a dissenting opinion in which Chief Justice and Justice Thomas joined.
SCOTUSBlog has materials on Wilkinson v. Garland, No. 22-666 , which was argued last November,
The issue before the Court was whether an agency determination that a given set of established facts does not rise to the statutory standard of “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” is a mixed question of law and fact reviewable under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(D), or whether this determination is a discretionary judgment call unreviewable under Section 1252(a)(2)(B)(i).
A portion of the syllabus to the opinion summarizes the holding as follows:
“In this case, the application of the hardship standard—which requires an IJ to evaluate a number of factors in determining whether any hardship to a U. S. citizen or permanent-resident family member is substantially different from what would normally be expected in the removal of a close family member—concededly requires a close examination of the facts. As in Guerrero-Lasprilla, a mixed question that requires close engagement with the facts is still a mixed question, and therefore a `question of law’ reviewable under §1252(a)(2)(D).”
Analysis of the decision will be posted.
KJ
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