No. 21-400

Melecia Baltazar-Sebastian v. United States

Lower Court: Fifth Circuit
Docketed: 2021-09-14
Status: Denied
Type: Paid
Response Waived Experienced Counsel
Tags: article-iii-court bail-reform-act civil-detention executive-branch executive-branch-authority immigration-and-nationality-act immigration-detention separation-of-powers statutory-interpretation
Key Terms:
SocialSecurity Immigration JusticiabilityDoctri
Latest Conference: 2021-10-08
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether the executive branch can keep a person in civil detention despite an Article III court's release order

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

QUESTION PRESENTED The Bail Reform Act (BRA), 18 U.S.C. §3142(b), authorizes Article III courts to order individuals released from pretrial detention if they are neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community. In this case, as in many others, the executive branch declined to release petitioner as an Article III court had ordered. Instead, executive branch officials kept her in detention and changed the claimed statutory basis for her detention to immigration detention pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 18 U.S.C. § 1226(a). The questions presented are: 1. Whether it violates the separation of powers for executive branch officials to keep a person in civil detention on the basis of factual findings that necessarily conflict with the factual findings of an Article III court. 2. Whether the BRA prohibits the United States from transferring a person into INA custody following a BRA release order except pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3142(d). (I)

Docket Entries

2021-10-12
Petition DENIED.
2021-09-22
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/8/2021.
2021-09-17
Waiver of right of respondent United States to respond filed.
2021-09-10
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due October 14, 2021)

Attorneys

Melecia Baltazar-Sebastian
Andrew Timothy TuttArnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, Petitioner
Andrew Timothy TuttArnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, Petitioner
United States
Brian H. FletcherActing Solicitor General, Respondent
Brian H. FletcherActing Solicitor General, Respondent