High Court Rejects Deportation for DUI
The Supreme Court on Tuesday spared millions of legal immigrants from the threat of being deported if they are involved in a drunk driving accident.
In a unanimous opinion written by ailing Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, the high court disagreed with the Bush administration and ruled that drunk driving is not a “crime of violence,” even if the accident results in injuries.
The decision limits the effect of tough immigration reform passed in 1996. According to that law, immigrants -- including those who have lived legally in the United States for many years -- shall be deported if they commit a serious crime, including any “crime of violence.”
Tuesday’s ruling does not change the practice in California, where the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to deport immigrants for drunk driving injury accidents. Nationally, it marked an important victory for immigrants’ rights, the American Civil Liberties Union said.
“This underscores the critical role of the courts in reviewing these deportation orders,” said Lucas Guttentag, director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. “The Supreme Court repudiated a position that began in the Clinton administration and continued in the Bush administration, and one that has caused an unknown number of persons to be deported.”
In most states, drunk driving that results in death or injury is a serious crime that can send a motorist to jail for a year or more. The question for the Supreme Court was whether the motorist also could be deported after leaving jail.
The 1996 law defined a crime of violence as the “use of physical force against another”; Justice Department lawyers argued that accidents were included in that definition. “Someone who drunkenly [though unintentionally] crashes his car into another has used physical force against his victim,” they argued.
But Rehnquist and his colleagues disagreed. They said that in the normal use of language, the phrase “use of force” implies an intent. “Thus, a person would ‘use ... physical force against’ another when pushing him; however, we would not ordinarily say a person ‘uses ... physical force against’ another by stumbling and falling into him,” the chief justice wrote.
Tuesday’s decision does not limit how states punish drunk drivers. Rather, it limits the federal government’s power to deport such persons.
The ruling came in the case of a Haitian immigrant who had lived in South Florida for nearly 20 years. In January 2000, Josue Leocal drove through a red light and struck another car. Two people were injured, and Leocal later pleaded guilty to drunk driving. He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison.
While he was behind bars, the Immigration and Naturalization Service moved to deport him. It said drunk driving that resulted in an injury was a crime of violence and an “aggravated felony” that demanded deportation. The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta agreed, and Leocal was sent back to Haiti two years ago.
But the Supreme Court voted to hear his appeal in the case of Leocal vs. Ashcroft because lower courts were split on the issue.
In 2002, the Department of Homeland Security reported that the United States had 11.4 million immigrants who were legal permanent residents. By some estimates, the nation has 20 million legal immigrants if all those who are here on short-term visas are counted.
Michael J. Ciatti, an attorney for the law firm that represented Leocal before the Supreme Court, said: “We have been in regular contact with one of Mr. Leocal’s sons, and the family was very happy to hear about the decision.”
He said that it was unusual for the court to rule on a deportation issue after the person in question already had been deported. “We hope this will ultimately lead to returning [Leocal] to the United States,” Ciatti said.
Rehnquist has been at home in recent weeks undergoing treatment for thyroid cancer, but the court staff has said he is continuing to work. Justices don’t write every word of their opinions, relying on clerks to do some of the background sections.
Over his decades on the court, Rehnquist has dictated the key passages of a court opinion and then has had his staff type a draft. He is a notoriously fast worker, so it was no surprise that his was one of the first two decisions handed down in this term.
The other decision Tuesday, written by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, limited the liability of railroads that ship cargo from seagoing vessels.
