Tomas Alejandro Mendez-Alcaraz v. Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General

I

The government removed Tomas Mendez-Alcaraz (“Mendez”) from this country based on a criminal conviction that violated his procedural due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Because such an unconscionable result cannot be affirmed, I dissent.

II

Shortly after his sixteenth birthday, petitioner Mendez, a lawful permanent resident of the United States, was subjected to an unlawful application of state law that cost him not only six years of his freedom, but also his ability to stay in the United States.

Although the laws of the United States and the state of…