Kerry v. Din (576 U.S. 86)

U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 15, 2015 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)

Citation
576 U.S. 86 · 135 S. Ct. 2128
Decided
June 15, 2015
Term
October Term 2014
Vote
5–4
Majority author
Justice Scalia
Issue area
Civil Rights
Disposition
Vacated and remanded
Outcome
Petitioning party won
Ideological direction
Conservative

Opinion excerpt

Justice SCALIAannounced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion, in which THE CHIEF JUSTICE and Justice THOMAS join. Fauzia Din is a citizen and resident of the United States. Her husband, Kanishka Berashk, is an Afghan citizen and former civil servant in the Taliban regime who resides in that country. When the Government declined to issue an immigrant visa to Berashk, Din sued. The state action of which Din complains is the denial of Berashk'svisa application. Naturally, one would expect him-not Din-to bring this suit. But because Berashk is an unadmitted and nonresident alien, he has no right of entry into the United States, and no cause of action to press in furtherance of his claim for admission. See Kleindienst v. Mandel,408 U.S. 753, 762, 92 S.Ct. 2576, 33 L.Ed.2d 683 (1972). So, Din attempts to bring suit on his behalf, alleging that the Government's denial of her husband'svisa application violated herconstitutional rights. See App. 36-37, Complaint ¶ 56. In particular, she claims that the Government denied her due process of law when, without adequate explanation of the reason for the visa denial, it deprived her of her constitutional right to live in the United States with her spouse. There is no such constitutional right. What Justice BREYER's dissent strangely describes as a "deprivation of her freedom to live together with her spouse in America,"…

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