Abou-Haidair v. Gonzales
Feb 21, 2006OUTCOME: Petition for Review Denied
In this case, I asked the First Circuit Court of Appeal to stop Mr. Abou-Haidar's deportation by holding that Mr. Abou-Haidar is a 'national' of the United States. My argument was based on the holding ... of US v. Morin, 80 F.3d 124 (4th Cir. 1996). The Petition for Review was denied. This means that the court was not convinced that Mr. Abou-Haidar was a US national, and that they allowed Mr. Abou-Haidar to be deported. When cases brought in the second and eleventh circuit argued the identical facts as my claim lost, I was reasonably certain that I was going to lose. The distinguishing fact between Mr. Morin and Mr. Abou-Haidar is that the individual the Morin court found to be a US national was the victim of Mr. Morin's crime. The court in Morin went out of its way to hold that Mr. Morin's victim was a US national so the court could 'enhance' Mr. Morin's prison sentence. In Abou-Haidar, Mr. Abou Haidar was the criminal. The court was not so flexible in dealing with a person convicted of the crime.
