Ashcroft v. North Jersey Media Group: Supreme Court Stays Injunction of Closed Immigration Hearings

IMMIGRATION LAW & POLICY

Removal Procedures and Defenses

ASHCROFT V. NORTH JERSEY MEDIA GROUP: SUPREME COURT STAYS INJUNCTION OF CLOSED IMMIGRATION HEARINGS
Immigrants' Rights Update, Web Edition, July 15, 2002

The United States Supreme Court has issued a stay of a lower court order that prohibited the Executive Office for Immigration Review from closing removal cases to the public in "special interest" cases pursuant to a directive of Chief Immigration Judge Michael Creppy (for more on the Creppy directive, see "Chief Immigration Judge Issues Guidelines for Secret Removal Hearings," Immigrants' Rights Update, Dec. 20, 2001, p. 3). The case below was brought by media organizations in New Jersey. The U.S. district court ruled that the blanket closing of hearings pursuant to the Creppy directive, without individualized determinations that national security interests warranted the closing of particular hearings, violates the First Amendment right of free speech, and issued an injunction. The government appealed the ruling to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, but the appellate court denied the government's request for a stay of the order pending consideration of the appeal. The government then sought a stay from the Supreme Court, and the Court has now stayed the order pending the final disposition of the government's appeal of the case to the Third Circuit.

Ashcroft v. North Jersey Media Group, No. 01A991 (Jun. 28, 2002).