Stone v. Immigration & Naturalization Service

115 S. Ct. 1537, 131 L. Ed. 2d 465, 8 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 699, 514 U.S. 386, 95 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 2868, 17 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 1160, 1995 U.S. LEXIS 2846, 95 Daily Journal DAR 4928, 63 U.S.L.W. 4294
CourtSupreme Court of the United States
DecidedApril 19, 1995
Docket93-1199
StatusPublished
Cited by1,649 cases

This text of 115 S. Ct. 1537 (Stone v. Immigration & Naturalization Service) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of the United States primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stone v. Immigration & Naturalization Service, 115 S. Ct. 1537, 131 L. Ed. 2d 465, 8 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 699, 514 U.S. 386, 95 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 2868, 17 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 1160, 1995 U.S. LEXIS 2846, 95 Daily Journal DAR 4928, 63 U.S.L.W. 4294 (U.S. 1995).

Opinions

Justice Kennedy

delivered the opinion of the Court.

We consider whether the filing of a timely motion for reconsideration of a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals tolls the running of the 90-day period for seeking judicial review of the decision.

I

Petitioner, Marvin Stone, is a citizen of Canada and a businessman and lawyer by profession. He entered the United States in 1977 as a nonimmigrant visitor for business and has since remained in the United States.

On January 3,1983, Stone was convicted of conspiracy and mail fraud, in violation of 18 U. S. C. §§ 371 and 1341. He served 18 months of a 3-year prison terrti. In March 1987, after his release, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) served him with an order to show cause why he should not be deported as a nonimmigrant who had remained in the United States beyond the period authorized by law. In January 1988, after a series of hearings, an Immigration Judge ordered Stone deported. The IJ concluded that under the regulations in effect when Stone entered the United States, an alien on a nonimmigrant for business visa [389]*389could remain in the country for an initial period not to exceed six months with the privilege of seeking extensions, which could be granted in 6-month increments. 8 CFR §214.2 (b) (1977). The IJ ordered deportation under 8 U. S. C. § 1251(a)(2) (now § 1251(a)(1)(B) (1988 ed., Supp. V)) based on petitioner’s testimony that he had remained in the United States since 1977 without seeking any extension. The IJ denied Stone’s application for suspension of deportation under 8 U. S. C. § 1254(a)(1), concluding that Stone’s conviction of mail fraud and 18-month incarceration barred him, as a matter of law, from establishing “good moral character” as required by § 1254. See § 1101(f)(7).

Stone’s administrative appeals were as follows: he appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals, which affirmed the IJ’s determinations and dismissed the appeal on July 26, 1991; he filed a “Motion to Reopen and/or to Reconsider” with the BIA in August 1991; on February 3, 1993, some 17 months later, the BIA denied the reconsideration motion as frivolous.

Judicial review was sought next. The record does not give the precise date, but, sometime in February or March 1993, Stone petitioned the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit for review of both the July 26, 1991, deportation order and the February 3, 1993, order denying reconsideration. The Court of Appeals dismissed the petition for want of jurisdiction to the extent the petition sought review of the July 26, 1991, order, the underlying deportation determination. The court held that the filing of the reconsideration motion did not toll the running of the 90-day filing period for review of final deportation orders. 13 F. 3d 934, 938-939 (1994). We granted certiorari, 511 U. S. 1105 (1994), to resolve a conflict among the Circuits on the question, compare Akrap v. INS, 966 F. 2d 267, 271 (CA7 1992), and Nocon v. INS, 789 F. 2d 1028, 1033 (CA3 1986) (agreeing that the filing of a reconsideration motion does not toll the statutory time limit for seeking review of a deportation order), with Fleary [390]*390v. INS, 950 F. 2d 711, 713 (CA11 1992), Pierre v. INS, 932 F. 2d 418, 421 (CA5 1991) (per curiam), Attoh v. INS, 606 F. 2d 1273, 1275, n. 15 (CADC 1979), and Bregman v. INS, 351 F. 2d 401, 402-403 (CA9 1965) (holding that a petition to review a deportation order is timely if filed within the statutory period following the disposition of a timely filed reconsideration motion). We now affirm.

II

A

Section 106(a)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) specifies that “a petition for review [of a final deportation order] may be filed not later than 90 days after the date of the issuance of the final deportation order, or, in the case of an alien convicted of an aggravated felony, not later than 30 days after the issuance of such order.” 8 U. S. C. § 1105a(a)(1) (1988 ed. and Supp. V). The clause pertaining to an “aggravated felony” is not a factor in the analysis, petitioner’s offense not being within that defined term. See § 1101(a)(43). He had the benefit of the full 90-day filing period. There is no dispute that a deportation order “become[s] final upon dismissal of an appeal by the Board of Immigration Appeals,” 8 CFR § 243.1 (1977), and, the parties agree, the 90-day period started on July 26, 1991.

The parties disagree, however, regarding the effect that petitioner’s later filing of a timely motion to reconsider had on the finality of the order. Petitioner contends that a timely motion to reconsider renders the underlying order nonfinal, and that a petition seeking review of both the order and the reconsideration denial is timely if filed (as this petition was) within 90 days of the reconsideration denial. The INS argues that the finality and reviewability of an order are unaffected by the filing of a motion to reconsider or to reopen. In its view the Court of Appeals had jurisdiction to review the denial of the motion to reconsider but not to review the original order.

[391]*391We considered the timeliness of a review petition where there is a motion to reconsider or reopen an agency’s order in ICC v. Locomotive Engineers, 482 U. S. 270 (1987). The Interstate Commerce Commission’s governing statute provided that, with certain exceptions, judicial review of ICC orders would be governed by the Hobbs Administrative Orders Review Act, 28 U. S. C. § 2341 et seq. See Locomotive Engineers, 482 U. S., at 277. We held that “the timely petition for administrative reconsideration stayed the running of the Hobbs Act’s limitation period until the petition had been acted upon by the Commission.” Id., at 284. Our conclusion, we acknowledged, was in some tension with the language of both the Hobbs Act, which permits an aggrieved party to petition for review “within 60 days after [the] entry” of a final order, 28 U. S. C. § 2344, and of 49 U. S. C. § 10327(i), “which provides that, ‘Notwithstanding’ the provision authorizing the Commission to reopen and reconsider its orders (§ 10327(g)), ‘an action of the Commission ... is final on the date on which it is served, and a civil action to enforce, enjoin, suspend, or set aside the action may be filed after that date.’” Locomotive Engineers, supra, at 284.

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115 S. Ct. 1537, 131 L. Ed. 2d 465, 8 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 699, 514 U.S. 386, 95 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 2868, 17 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 1160, 1995 U.S. LEXIS 2846, 95 Daily Journal DAR 4928, 63 U.S.L.W. 4294, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stone-v-immigration-naturalization-service-scotus-1995.