United States Third Circuit

In an appeal by an Egyptian national seeking to avoid removal, grant of petition for habeas relief is vacated, and petition for review of removal order is granted, where: 1) the district court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the habeas petition after Congress expressly removed such jurisdiction; 2) the petition for review was subject to federal appellate jurisdiction; 3) the lawfulness of DHS's termination of petitioner's deferral of removal based on diplomatic assurances by Egypt that he would not be tortured if returned there was a justiciable issue not subject to the political question doctrine or the rule of non-inquiry; 4) a procedure for making an individualized determination, in every case, as to whether particular diplomatic assurances were sufficient to permit removal under the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act was not unreasonable; 5) no statutory or regulatory provision either afforded or prohibited procedures to challenge diplomatic assurances; 6) as an alien already granted statutory relief from removal, petitioner was entitled to due process prior to removal; and 7) petitioner was not afforded due process to challenge the diplomatic assurances upon which termination or deferral of removal was based.

Appellate Information

• Argued 06/30/2008
• Decided 12/05/2008
• Published 12/05/2008

Judges

• Before:  RENDELL, SMITH, and FISHER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Third Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Amrit Singh, Esq., [Argued], Lee Gelernt, Esq., [Argued], Judy Rabinovitz, Esq., American Civil Liberties Union, Immigrants' Rights Project, New York, NY, Morton H. Sklar, Esq., World Organization for Human Rights, USA, Washington, DC, Witold J. Walczak, Esq., American Civil Liberties Union, Pittsburgh, PA, for Petitioner/Plaintiff-Appellee Sameh Sami S. Khouzam., Demetrios K. Stratis, Esq., Fairlawn, NJ, for Amicus Appellee American Center for Law and Justice;  European Centre for Law and Justice., Baher A. Azmy, Esq., Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice Newark, NJ, for Amicus Appellee Scholars of International Human Rights Law., Jane M. Ricci, Esq., Eleanor H. Smith, Esq., Zuckerman Spaeder, Washington, DC, for Amicus Appellee Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture The Redress Trust., Paul R. Taskier, Esq., Dickstein Shapiro, Washington, DC, for Amicus Appellee Human Rights Watch;  Amnesty International;  Center for Constitutional Rights;  International Commission of Jurists;  International Federation for Human Rights., Thomas H. Dupree, Jr., Esq., [Argued], United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC, Douglas E. Ginsburg, Esq., United States Department of Justice, Office of Immigration Litigation, Washington, DC, for Defendants/Appellants Secretary of Department of Homeland Security;  Thomas Hogan.