Supreme Court Takes Up Drug Smuggler Deportation Case

The U. S. Supreme Court issued an orders list today, taking up one case, Riley v. Garland, No. 23-1270. Pierre Riley is a citizen of Jamaica, caught eight years ago smuggling over a metric ton of marijuana. Upon his release from prison, the immigration authorities began deportation on the ground that he had committed an aggravated felony.

An immigration judge granted Riley’s application for asylum, but the Government appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals, which reversed and reinstated the deportation order.

The case involves technical questions regarding the jurisdiction and timing for a federal court of appeals to review immigration decisions.

The Supreme Court granted certiorari “limited to the questions presented by the respondent’s brief,” i.e., as phrased by the Government. That is an unusual step indicating that they did not think too highly of the way the petitioner’s attorney phrased the questions.

Here are the QPs as phrased by the Government and accepted by the Court:

1. Whether the 30-day deadline in 8 U.S.C. 1252(b)(1) for filing a petition for review of an order of removal is jurisdictional.

2. Whether a noncitizen satisfies the deadline in Section 1252(b)(1) by filing a petition for review challenging an agency order denying withholding of removal or protection under the Convention Against Torture within 30 days of the issuance of that order.

All the briefs in the Supreme Court are paper rather than electronic, so we can’t get them the usual way. The Fourth Circuit’s decision is here.