Hochul pardon ends Supreme Court immigration detention case

Why the Supreme Court case ended

The Supreme Court will not hear oral arguments in Genalo v. Black after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul pardoned Keisy Guerrero Mariano in late August. Mariano, a lawfully present Dominican citizen identified in court papers as “Keisy GM,” had pleaded guilty to second-degree assault.

The Trump administration had asked the justices to review whether noncitizens subject to deportation because of criminal convictions have a constitutional right to a bond hearing when immigration detention becomes prolonged. Solicitor General John Sauer agreed that the pardon made the dispute moot, meaning there was no longer a live case for the Court to decide.

The Court had agreed on June 15 to hear the case. Sauer said the administration plans to seek another case that could put the same legal question before the justices during the 2026-27 term.

How the dispute reached the Court

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Mariano in 2020 because of a 2015 assault conviction for which Mariano had served time. Mariano remained in immigration detention for nearly two years before being released in 2022 under a nationwide order addressing COVID-19 health risks.

A federal district judge denied Mariano’s request for release in November 2021. In May 2024, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision and held that the government must provide a bond hearing once detention becomes unreasonably long. The appeals court found that failing to provide a hearing would violate the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process.

The case also involved Carol Williams Black, a Jamaican national convicted in New York in 2000 of sexually abusing a child younger than 11. Black’s part of the case became moot after leaving the United States and declaring an intention not to return.