Evelyn Sineneng-Smith is an immigration consultant in California, helping individuals and employers navigate the nation’s complex immigration system so that noncitizens, including undocumented workers, can become lawful and productive residents in the United States. In the course of assisting two undocumented workers and their employer with the process of obtaining a status that would allow the workers to remain and work in the U.S., Sineneng-Smith prepared and filed paperwork and applications that gave the workers a better chance of eventually obtaining permanent lawful residency status, although obtaining that status still depended on changes in the law extending the workers’ eligibility dates. Sineneng-Smith was charged with and convicted of violating an immigration statute making it a crime to “encourage” or “induce” an alien to reside in the U.S. in violation of the law.
On appeal, she argued that she had not misled the workers and that statute’s ban on “encouraging” another to stay in the country violates the First Amendment’s. On appeal, a federal appeals court asked that the issue of the statute’s overbreadth be briefed, and then reversed the conviction on that basis. In overruling the appeals court, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the lower court’s ruling should have been limited strictly to the issues raised by the parties and should not have ruled on the basis of legal defects noticed by the court. The Rutherford Institute and its partners filed an amicus brief supporting Sineneng-Smith, arguing that the criminal prohibition on “encouraging” aliens to stay in the U.S. discriminates against speech on the basis of its viewpoint in violation of the First Amendment.
Affiliate attorneys Erin Glenn Busby, Lisa R. Eskow and Michael F. Sturley of the University of Texas School of Law Supreme Court Clinic assisted The Rutherford Institute and its coalition partners in advancing the arguments in Sineneng-Smith.
The Supreme Court’s opinion and the amicus brief of The Rutherford Institute, the ACLU and the SEIU in United States v. Sineneng-Smith are available at www.rutherford.org.
The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties organization, provides legal assistance at no charge to individuals whose constitutional rights have been threatened or violated and educates the public on a wide spectrum of issues affecting their freedoms.
Source: https://bit.ly/2SKUSSO
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