Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Marmolejo-Campos v. Gonzales (9th Cir. - Sept. 12, 2007)

It takes a fair piece to get Judge Dorothy Nelson to dissent. But this opinion does the trick.

It's a deportation case, where we're kicking Armando Marmolejo-Campos out of the country. Judge Nelson does a good job of explaining what the case entails and why she comes out the way she does. Here's the first paragraph of her dissent:

"In this appeal, we are tasked with answering a straightforward question: Does the act of driving while intoxicated, which is not a crime involving moral turpitude, somehow become morally turpitudinous when coupled with the act of driving without a license, which also is not a crime involving moral turpitude? The majority states that precedent and administrative deference require us to answer this question in the affirmative, but I respectfully disagree."

That sums it up pretty darn well. Plus, you gotta love any opinion that uses the term "turpitudinous". Nice.