Petition for Writ of Certiorari - Going Out Today

Just gave the final OK to the print shop  to start printing our first Petition for Writ to the Supreme Court.  

The Supreme Court Rules make printing very difficult for anyone just using a desktop computer and Word.  The "booklet" format calls for 6 1/8" x 9 1/4" white paper, a minimum of 60# weight, using only the Century family of typeface, 12 point with a minimum of 2 point leading, all bound by saddle stitching or perfect binding. Left with no option but to send the job out, and rushed to boot.

I am left with the impression that out legal issue presented is compelling and "certworthy" but now its in the hands of the Court.  Our case involves the Board of Immigration Appeals "heavy burden" standard  they impose on a movant seeking to reopen their deportation proceeding based on changed country conditions, pursuant to section 240 of the INA. The "heavy burden"  comes right from a  Supreme Court decision in INS v. Doherty, (1992) that states since there is no statutory authority for such a motion, they grant the AG discretionary authority to set the standard.   However, Congress did grant explicit statutory authority in the IIRIRA Act of 1996, under section 240(c)(7)(C)(ii). 

This is  the basis of our petition, that the express intent of Congress  is not being adhered to by the BIA. 

My Research Paper Accepted for Publication

Just got notified that my research paper on asylum law was accepted for publication on the USF Journal of Law and Social Challenges. 

I spend a great deal of time and energy in researching and writing this paper. It is over 60 pages in length and quite detailed.  I am very happy that it will be published. 

More to follow as our office picked up our second petition for certiorari to the US Supreme Court.  

Yesterday I wrote the application for stay of the mandate to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and sent it out.

This question involves the court's  granting of the government's motion to strike all of our evidence showing Petitioner's prior counsel was a party to an international asylum fraud ring which resulted in his ineffective assistance of counsel.

Supreme Court here we come

Today we filed  an application to recall and stay the issuance of  the mandate in an immigration case, pending the filing of a petition for writ of certiorari with  the U.S. Supreme Court. 

When we got the client's approval to proceed with his appeal,  I was a little hesitant that we did not have a real issue  to pursue, however, in working on this case  the last two days, IO have really found a bona fide conflict in the manner by which the Board of Immigration Appeals handles a motion to  reopen.  

More to follow.

Human Rights Watch Releases New Report on Israeli - Lebanon War

Last week on September 6, 2007, Human Rights Watch ("HRW") released their detailed report  on civilian casualties in the Israeli - Lebanon War of last summer.  In the report, HRW lays the blame from the vast majority of civilian deaths at the doorstep of  Israel's indiscriminate airstrikes, not Hezbollah's shielding as claimed  by Israeli officials.  

Of the approximately 900 civilian deaths inside Lebanon during the July-August 2006 War, HRW investigated more than  500 of the deaths in making their determination in the released report.  

The full report is available here: http://hrw.org/reports/2007/lebanon0907/

Ninth Circuit En Banc Decision on Indonesian Christian Asylum Claims

Lolong v. Gonzales, 484 F.3d 1173 (9th Cir. 2007) en banc.

Last May, the Ninth Circuit released  their long awaited en banc decision on the fate of thousands of  Indonesian Christians who filed  for asylum premised upon their persecution  "on account" of their religious beliefs.  

In the decision authored by the Honorable Jay S. Bybee, the court held that in the case of Marjorie Konda Lolong, she had nothing to fear back in Indonesia because the government is not "unable or unwilling to control the perpetrators of this violence." Id. at 1180.  The decision opines further, "the government of Indonesia  has  shown its general commitment to freedom of religion and its lack of institutional discrimination against the ethnic Chinese minority."  

The court I believed feared a general  grant of asylum to any and all ethnic Indonesian Christian Chinese.  The larger effect of this en banc decision however is  to give the green light to all pending asylum claims by this persecuted group and they are being denied relief as quickly as the wheels of justice can deliver it.