Sotomayor, J., dissenting
Curiae 10–25 (collecting offenses).[1]
This significant potential for “redundancy,” “unfairness,” and “arbitrary” enforcement should have led the Court to “exercise interpretive restraint,” Marinello v. United States, 584 U. S. ___, ___, ___ (2018) (slip op., at 7, 9) (internal quotation marks omitted), when construing “relating to.” Indeed, the many problems with an expansive reading of “relating to” raise the question whether the Court even really intends to adopt such a reading, especially because the relevant discussion occupies a single paragraph. Perhaps instead the Court simply offers up “connection with” as a synonym for “relating to,” leaving it for lower courts to settle what that phrase actually means.
III
While the evidence assembled here is far stronger than any offered by the majority, the sheer complexity of the task at hand leaves lingering ambiguity, even if the Court claims it does not see it. Cf. ante, at 10. To the extent doubts remain, however, they are resolved in favor of a narrower understanding of §1101(a)(43)(S) by the “longstanding principle of construing any lingering ambiguities in deportation statutes in favor of the [non-U. S. citizen].” INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U. S. 421, 449 (1987).
This Court resolves doubts in favor of the non-U. S. citizen in keeping with the general rule that ambiguities in penal statutes should be construed against the government.
- ↑ Of course, many of the convictions the Government seeks to shoehorn into “obstruction of justice” are serious offenses, even if they are not a categorical match for obstruction of justice. Such convictions, however, may render non-U. S. citizens removable for other reasons (e.g., if they qualify as crimes involving moral turpitude). Moreover, when noncitizens are removable, any discretionary immigration relief for which they may be eligible will “depen[d] upon the discretion of the Attorney General.” Carachuri-Rosendo v. Holder, 560 U. S. 563, 581 (2010). Thus, any difference between the majority and the dissent in terms of “practical effect on policing our Nation’s borders … is a limited one.” Ibid.
