Justices Worry About Pandora’s Box and 42B Situations for Bad Lawyering Claims
In oral arguments yesterday, Supreme Court justices speculated that a ruling for an immigrant whose lawyer gave him bad deportation advice could reach a myriad of different situations where lawyers are wrong about the collateral consequences of a guilty plea.
Forty-two billion situations, to be more specific.
“The world is filled with 42 billion circumstances” that could trigger ineffective-assistance claims, Justice Stephen G. Breyer said. The National Law Journal had the story.
Padilla—no relation to the man convicted of terrorism charges—wants to withdraw his guilty plea to a felony marijuana charge because his lawyer wrongly told him the plea would not result in his deportation.
Most of the justices appeared reluctant to expand the definition of ineffective assistance to include collateral matters such as bad deportation advice, according to the NLJ. The New York Times had a similar take.
“Several Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared sympathetic to a criminal defendant who unwittingly agreed to be deported by pleading guilty to a drug crime,” the Times said. “But the justices seemed uncertain about whether they could fashion a legal rule that would address extreme cases without causing turmoil in the criminal justice system.”
Justice Antonin Scalia warned of a possible Pandora’s box if the Supreme Court rules for Padilla, according to the stories. The Washington Post and the Associated Press also covered Scalia’s comments.
“We have to decide whether we are opening a Pandora’s box here, whether there is any sensible way to restrict it to deportation,” Scalia said, according to the Post account. “What about advice on whether pleading guilty would—would cause him to lose custody of his children? That’s pretty serious. What if pleading guilty will—will affect whether he can keep his truck, which is his main means of livelihood, or whether—whether it would be seized by the government as the instrument of his crime?”
Stephen Kinnaird of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker argued for Padilla. He held a briefing session afterwards for eight University of Pennsylvania law students who helped with research, the Penn Current reports.