Georgia Law Professor Jason A. Cade was among the immigration law scholars providing media commentary on a decision that the U.S. Supreme Court issued on Thursday.

At issue was the interpretation of a term in the federal immigration statute: “aggravated felony.” An undocumented immigrant found to have been convicted of a crime that amounts to this type of felony is to be removed from the United States. In the case under review, Luna Torres v. Lynch, a 5-member Court majority construed the term in a way that eases prosecutors’ burden of establishing that the crime of conviction was “aggravated.”

Professor Cade (above) is an immigration law expert who leads Georgia Law’s Community HeLP Clinic and also serves on our Dean Rusk International Law Center Council. Regarding the judgment in in Luna Torres, Cade said in a Bloomberg BNA: Criminal Law Reporter article:

“I think it’s fair to say that the majority was simply uncomfortable with an interpretation of the aggravated felony provision that would have made it more difficult for the government to remove some very serious noncitizen offenders.”

The article is available in PDF here; the Court’s decision, in PDF here. Professor Cade’s publications may be accessed here.