SCOTUSblog on Padilla Retroactivity Oral Argument

This wikilog article is a draft, it was not published yet.

by: Ryan • November 2, 2012 • no comments

Very much worth reading in full.

From my reading of the transcript, I found it hard to tell how the Court might ultimately rule, although I admittedly was more convinced before than after the argument that Chaidez would prevail. The argument was not particularly "ideological" in nature; instead, the Justices genuinely seemed to be trying to grapple with the precedent and the practicalities of its ruling in the case at hand, as well as the policy questions implicated by the case. Such careful deliberation of the individual case is precisely why it is difficult to predict how the Court will decide an immigration case. Legal doctrine, rather than ideological tilt,seems to be of critical importance in the immigration decisions of the Roberts Court.