This page contains Supreme Court rulings -- with summaries of the majority and minority conclusions.
Decided Apr 29, 2003
Case Ruling: Demore v. Kim
The Immigration and Nationality Act allows taking into custody any alien who is removable from this country because he has been convicted of one of a specified set of crimes. Respondent Kim, a lawful permanent resident alien, was convicted in state court of first-degree burglary; the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) charged him with being deportable, and detained him, without bail, pending his removal hearing.HELD: By Rehnquist; joined in full by Kennedy; in part by O'Connor, Scalia, & ThomasThe Court held- that the Immigration and Nationality Act does not deprive the federal courts of jurisdiction to grant habeas relief to aliens challenging their detention, and
- that detention during removal proceedings is a constitutionally permissible part of that process.
Rehnquist wrote that Congress, concerned that deportable criminal aliens may fail to appear for their removal hearings, has the authority to require that persons be detained for the
brief period necessary for their removal proceedings.CONCURRENCE IN PART 2; DISSENT IN PART 1: By O'Connor; joined by Scalia & ThomasO'Connor dissented from the first holding, reasoning that the Act deprives federal courts of jurisdiction in such a case. CONCURRENCE IN PART 1; DISSENT IN PART 2: By Souter; joined by Stevens, Ginsburg & BreyerThis concurrence dissented from the Court's second holding; i.e., that the INS may not indefinitely hold people awaiting hearings for deportation. The minority argued against lengthy mandatory detention: "The Court's holding that the Constitution permits the Government to lock up a lawful permanent resident of this country when there is concededly no reason to do so forgets over a century of precedent acknowledging the rights of permanent residents, including the basic liberty from physical confinement lying at the heart of due process."
Participating counts on VoteMatch question 12.
Question 12: Pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens
Scores: -2=Strongly oppose; -1=Oppose; 0=neutral; 1=Support; 2=Strongly support.
- Topic: Immigration
- Headline: INS may hold deportation suspects without bail
(Score: -2)
- Headline 2: INS may hold suspects for deportation, but habeas applies
(Score: -1)
- Headline 3: INS may not hold deportation suspects indefinitely
(Score: 1)
Participating counts on AmericansElect question 4.
- Headline: INS may hold deportation suspects without bail
(Answer: D)
- Headline 2: INS may hold suspects for deportation, but habeas applies
(Answer: C)
- Headline 3: INS may not hold deportation suspects indefinitely
(Answer: B)
- AmericansElect Quiz Question 4 on
Immigration:
When you think about illegal immigration, which of the following solutions come closest to your opinion?
- A: All illegal immigrants should be able to stay in the US legally
- B: Most illegal immigrants should be able to stay in the US, with some exceptions
- C: Most illegal immigrants should be deported, with some exceptions
- D: All illegal immigrants should be deported
- E: Unsure
- Key for participation codes:
- Sponsorships: p=sponsored; o=co-sponsored; s=signed
- Memberships: c=chair; m=member; e=endorsed; f=profiled; s=scored
- Resolutions: i=introduced; w=wrote; a=adopted
- Cases: w=wrote; j=joined; d=dissented; c=concurred
- Surveys: '+' supports; '-' opposes.
Independents
participating in 03-DEMORE |
Total recorded by OnTheIssues:
Democrats:
2
Republicans:
7
Independents:
0 |
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