Mellouli v. Lynch

Citation192 L.Ed.2d 60,135 S.Ct. 1980,575 U.S. 798
Decision Date01 June 2015
Docket NumberNo. 13–1034.,13–1034.
Parties Moones MELLOULI, Petitioner v. Loretta E. LYNCH, Attorney General.
CourtUnited States Supreme Court

Jon Laramore, Indianapolis, IN, for Petitioner.

Rachel P. Kovner, for Respondent.

Jon Laramore, Counsel of Record, D. Lucetta Pope, Daniel E. Pulliam, Faegre Baker Daniels LLP, Indianapolis, IN, for Petitioner.

Katherine Evans, Benjamin Casper, University of Minnesota Law School Center for New Americans, Minneapolis, MN, Michael Sharma–Crawford, Sharma–Crawford, Attys. at Law, LLC, Kansas City, MO, John Keller, Sheila Stuhlman, Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, for Petitioner.

Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., Solicitor General, Counsel of Record, Joyce R. Branda, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Edwin S. Kneedler, Deputy Solicitor General, Rachel P. Kovner, Assistant to the Solicitor General, Donald E. Keener, W. Manning Evans, Attorneys, Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Respondent.

Justice GINSBURG delivered the opinion of the Court.

This case requires us to decide how immigration judges should apply a deportation (removal) provision, defined with reference to federal drug laws, to an alien convicted of a state drug-paraphernalia misdemeanor.

Lawful permanent resident Moones Mellouli, in 2010, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor offense under Kansas law, the possession of drug paraphernalia to "store, contain, conceal, inject, ingest, inhale or otherwise introduce a controlled substance into the human body." Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21–5709(b)(2) (2013 Cum. Supp.). The sole "paraphernalia" Mellouli was charged with possessing was a sock in which he had placed four orange tablets. The criminal charge and plea agreement did not identify the controlled substance involved, but Mellouli had acknowledged, prior to the charge and plea, that the tablets were Adderall. Mellouli was sentenced to a suspended term of 359 days and 12 months' probation.

In February 2012, several months after Mellouli successfully completed probation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested him as deportable under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(B)(i) based on his Kansas misdemeanor conviction. Section 1227(a)(2)(B)(i) authorizes the removal of an alien "convicted of a violation of ... any law or regulation of a State, the United States, or a foreign country relating to a controlled substance (as defined in section 802 of Title 21 )." We hold that Mellouli's Kansas conviction for concealing unnamed pills in his sock did not trigger removal under § 1227(a)(2)(B)(i). The drug-paraphernalia possession law under which he was convicted, Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21–5709(b), by definition, related to a controlled substance: The Kansas statute made it unlawful "to use or possess with intent to use any drug paraphernalia to ... store [or] conceal ... a controlled substance." But it was immaterial under that law whether the substance was defined in 21 U.S.C. § 802 . Nor did the State charge, or seek to prove, that Mellouli possessed a substance on the § 802 schedules. Federal law ( § 1227(a)(2)(B)(i) ), therefore, did not authorize Mellouli's removal.

I
A

This case involves the interplay between several federal and state statutes. Section 1227(a)(2)(B)(i), a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 66 Stat. 163, as amended, authorizes the removal of an alien "convicted of a violation of ... any law or regulation of a State, the United States, or a foreign country relating to a controlled substance (as defined in section 802 of Title 21 ), other than a single offense involving possession for one's own use of 30 grams or less of marijuana." Section 1227(a)(2)(B)(i) incorporates 21 U.S.C. § 802, which limits the term "controlled substance" to a "drug or other substance" included in one of five federal schedules. § 802(6).

The statute defining the offense to which Mellouli pleaded guilty, Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21–5709(b), proscribes "possess[ion] with intent to use any drug paraphernalia to," among other things, "store" or "conceal" a "controlled substance." Kansas defines "controlled substance" as any drug included on its own schedules, and makes no reference to § 802 or any other federal law. § 21–5701(a).1 At the time of Mellouli's conviction, Kansas' schedules included at least nine substances not included in the federal lists. See § 65–4105(d)(30), (31), (33), (34), (36) (2010 Cum. Supp.); § 65–4111(g) (2002); § 65–4113(d)(1), (e), (f) (2010 Cum. Supp.); see also Brief for Respondent 9, n. 2.

The question presented is whether a Kansas conviction for using drug paraphernalia to store or conceal a controlled substance, § 21–5709(b), subjects an alien to deportation under § 1227(a)(2)(B)(i), which applies to an alien "convicted of a violation of [a state law] relating to a controlled substance (as defined in [ § 802 ] )."

B

Mellouli, a citizen of Tunisia, entered the United States on a student visa in 2004. He attended U.S. universities, earning a bachelor of arts degree, magna cum laude, as well as master's degrees in applied mathematics and economics. After completing his education, Mellouli worked as an actuary and taught mathematics at the University of Missouri–Columbia. In 2009, he became a conditional permanent resident and, in 2011, a lawful permanent resident. Since December 2011, Mellouli has been engaged to be married to a U.S. citizen.

In 2010, Mellouli was arrested for driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license. During a postarrest search in a Kansas detention facility, deputies discovered four orange tablets hidden in Mellouli's sock. According to a probable-cause affidavit submitted in the state prosecution, Mellouli acknowledged that the tablets were Adderall and that he did not have a prescription for the drugs. Adderall, the brand name of an amphetamine-based drug typically prescribed to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

,2 is a controlled substance under both federal and Kansas law. See 21 CFR § 1308.12(d)(1) (2014) (listing "amphetamine" and its "salts" and "isomers"); Kan. Stat. Ann. § 65–4107(d)(1) (2013 Cum. Supp.) (same). Based on the probable-cause affidavit, a criminal complaint was filed charging Mellouli with trafficking contraband in jail.

Ultimately, Mellouli was charged with only the lesser offense of possessing drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor. The amended complaint alleged that Mellouli had "use[d] or possess[ed] with intent to use drug paraphernalia, to-wit: a sock, to store, contain, conceal, inject, ingest, inhale or otherwise introduce into the human body a controlled substance." App. 23. The complaint did not identify the substance contained in the sock. Mellouli pleaded guilty to the paraphernalia possession charge; he also pleaded guilty to driving under the influence. For both offenses, Mellouli was sentenced to a suspended term of 359 days and 12 months' probation.

In February 2012, several months after Mellouli successfully completed probation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested him as deportable under § 1227(a)(2)(B)(i) based on his paraphernalia possession conviction. An Immigration Judge ordered Mellouli deported, and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) affirmed the order. Mellouli was deported in 2012.

Under federal law, Mellouli's concealment of controlled-substance tablets in his sock would not have qualified as a drug-paraphernalia offense. Federal law criminalizes the sale of or commerce in drug paraphernalia, but possession alone is not criminalized at all. See 21 U.S.C. § 863(a) - (b). Nor does federal law define drug paraphernalia to include common household or ready-to-wear items like socks; rather, it defines paraphernalia as any "equipment, product, or material" which is "primarily intended or designed for use " in connection with various drug-related activities. § 863(d) (emphasis added). In 19 States as well, the conduct for which Mellouli was convicted—use of a sock to conceal a controlled substance—is not a criminal offense. Brief for National Immigrant Justice Center et al. as Amici Curiae 7. At most, it is a low-level infraction, often not attended by a right to counsel. Id., at 9–11.

The Eighth Circuit denied Mellouli's petition for review. 719 F.3d 995 (2013). We granted certiorari, 573 U.S. ––––, 134 S.Ct. 2873, 189 L.Ed.2d 831 (2014), and now reverse the judgment of the Eighth Circuit.

II

We address first the rationale offered by the BIA and affirmed by the Eighth Circuit, which differentiates paraphernalia offenses from possession and distribution offenses. Essential background, in evaluating the rationale shared by the BIA and the Eighth Circuit, is the categorical approach historically taken in determining whether a state conviction renders an alien removable under the immigration statute.3

Because Congress predicated deportation "on convictions, not conduct," the approach looks to the statutory definition of the offense of conviction, not to the particulars of an alien's behavior. Das, The Immigration Penalties of Criminal Convictions: Resurrecting Categorical Analysis in Immigration Law, 86 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1669, 1701, 1746 (2011). The state conviction triggers removal only if, by definition, the underlying crime falls within a category of removable offenses defined by federal law. Ibid. An alien's actual conduct is irrelevant to the inquiry, as the adjudicator must " presume that the conviction rested upon nothing more than the least of the acts criminalized" under the state statute. Moncrieffe v. Holder, 569 U.S. ––––, ––––, 133 S.Ct. 1678, 1684–1685, 185 L.Ed.2d 727 (2013) (internal quotation marks and alterations omitted).4

The categorical approach "has a long pedigree in our Nation's immigration law." Id., at ––––, 133 S.Ct., at 1685. As early as 1913, courts examining the federal immigration statute concluded that Congress, by tying immigration penalties to convictions ,

intended to "limi[t] the immigration adjudicator's...

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