Date: 23 April 2013
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled for a Jamaican immigrant trying to avoid mandatory deportation after being caught with marijuana for the equivalent of two or three marijuana cigarettes.
The question debated by court was whether his guilty plea to a Georgia Court, to possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, could be construed as an “aggravated felony” which would require mandatory deportation.
As reported by U.S. media, 'Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the majority opinion that the ambiguity must be construed in Moncrieffe’s favor.' She wrote that the government’s construction of low-level drug offences where no remuneration is involved as drug-trafficking defies ‘the “commonsense conception” ’.
Read the petition for writ here and the final decision by Supreme Court in this link.
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