Third Circuit Decision Will Be Argued April 27, 2009 at the Supreme Court (Nijhawan)

Just a few days until the US Supreme Court holds oral argument on Monday, April 27, 2009 in Nijhawan v. Holder. It's Supreme Court case 08-495. The Third Circuit's decision is at 523 F.3d 387 and was titled Nijhawan v. Mukasey. The Supreme Court granted certiorari on January 16, 2009.

The Supreme Court is addressing the question of whether conspiracy to commit bank fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud is a conviction for conspiracy of an offense involving fraud or deceit in which the loss to the victim exceeds $10,000 where the criminal statute does not include any requirement that the loss exceed $10,000 but the sentencing stipulations note that the victim's loss was much more than $10,000 (it seems like it was on the order of over $100 million).

It's listed as the first of two cases slated for Monday, April 27. Stay tuned. It could be an excellent opportunity for the Supreme Court to get back to basics and impose some long-needed sense to the categorical approach to analyzing the immigration consequences of criminal convictions. The immigrant in the case has a strong argument that it is not an aggravated felony.

See
http://supremecourtus.gov/qp/08-00495qp.pdf
for the listing of the case on the Supreme Court web site.

Listed for the petitioner is Thomas E. Moseley of Newark, NJ. Listed for the government is Curtis E. Gannon, Assistant to the Solicitor General, Justice Department, Washington DC.