Ketanji Brown Jackson Pens Supreme Court Opinion Supporting Transgender Immigrant's Battle Against Deportation

Written By BlabberBuzz | Friday, 12 May 2023 08:35 AM
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Ketanji Brown Jackson Pens Supreme Court Opinion Supporting Transgender Immigrant's Battle Against Deportation

The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a transgender immigrant facing deportation in a case that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson authored.

The ruling on Santos-Zacaria v. Garland, released on Thursday, found that noncitizens must exhaust all administrative remedies before challenging deportation is not jurisdictional. This paves the way for Leon Santos-Zacaria, a transgender individual who goes by Estrella, to appeal deportation from the United States.

The lower court had ruled that Santos-Zacaria had not exhausted all measures before filing to appeal the petitioner's deportation to Mexico in 2019 under immigration statutes.

Santos-Zacaria sought to remain permanently under a law protecting immigrants if they can prove they are or will be persecuted in their country of origin. Santos-Zacaria claimed there were safety risks to returning to Mexico, citing instances of assault and when Santos-Zacaria was beaten unconscious.

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An immigration judge had previously ruled that Santos-Zacaria did not suffer "past persecution" and, therefore, could not appeal based on the chance of future persecution.

However, the Supreme Court found that the statutory provision "lacks the clear statement necessary to qualify as jurisdictional." Justice Clarence Thomas joined Justice Samuel Alito in a short, separate concurring opinion.

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In Alito's opinion, he concurred that the statute does not "require the filing of a motion for consideration under the circumstances presented here" and that the decision to grant reconsideration is "discretionary."

This is Jackson's third opinion since joining the Supreme Court and continues her streak of landing in the conservative majority on typically non-controversial issues. She did dissent partly to another rule the court released Thursday, National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, which upheld California's animal welfare law.

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The newest justice has also issued dissents in high court decisions where the majority declined to take up a case for consideration, including one where she signaled she would have taken up the case of a death row inmate from Ohio in November.

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