Latest Case: Chen v. Barr (Immigration Law)

Not Letting Felons Vote Damages Democracy for All Citizens

AUSTIN SARAT

Austin Sarat—Associate Provost, Associate Dean of the Faculty, and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College—argues that disenfranchising felons, as most American states do in some way, does substantial harm to everyone in our democracy. Sarat praises a recent decision by a federal district court in Florida striking down a state law requiring people with serious criminal convictions to pay court fines and fees before they can register to vote, but he cautions that but much more needs to be done to ensure that those who commit serious crimes can exercise one of the essential rights of citizenship.

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Chen v. Barr

Docket: 19-2375

Opinion Date: May 29, 2020

Judge: Frank Hoover Easterbrook

Areas of Law: Immigration Law

Chen, a citizen of China, entered the U.S. without inspection in 2004. A “Notice to Appear,” dated April 2010, did not include the time and place for a hearing, Immigration officials sent Chen another document, dated July 2010, with that information. Chen appeared and sought asylum; the request was denied as untimely. In 2018, the Supreme Court held (Pereira) that a Notice that omits the time and place of the hearing does not comply with 8 U.S.C. 229(a)(1)(G)(i). Chen (untimely) moved to reopen her case to seek cancellation of removal, as an alien who has lived in the U.S. for a decade. Chen contended that, until the Pereira decision, she did not recognize that she might be eligible for that relief. An alien's accumulation of physical presence time is stopped by the commission of a crime or service of a Notice to Appear. Chen and her lawyer assumed that the April 2010 Notice stopped the accrual of time, but Chen argued that Pereira holds otherwise. The BIA denied the motion, reasoning that the required components of a Notice need not be in a single document if multiple documents collectively provide the required information; Pereira held that multiple notices cannot be combined with the effective date of the first document, but did not address what happens once all information has been provided. Time stops once the alien has all of the information required by statute. The Seventh Circuit denied a petition for review. Chen did not object to the charging documents for years, without any good excuse for delay.