Leocal v. Ashcroft

Leocal v. Ashcroft
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 12, 2004 Decided November 9, 2004
Full case name	Josue Leocal v. John D. Ashcroft, Attorney General of the United States
Citations	543 U.S. 1 (more) 125 S. Ct. 377; 160 L. Ed. 2d 271; 73 U.S.L.W. 4001
Case history
Prior	Deportation order affirmed by the Board of Immigration Appeals; petition for review in the Eleventh Circuit denied; cert. granted, 540 U.S. 1176 (2004).
Holding
DUI crimes that have either no mens rea element or require merely negligence for a conviction are not "crimes of violence" that subject aliens to deportation.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinion
Majority	Rehnquist, joined by unanimous
Laws applied
8 U.S.C. § 1227; 18 U.S.C. § 16

Leocal v. Ashcroft, 543 U.S. 1 (2004), held that aliens may not be deported after being convicted of DUI if the DUI statute that defines the offense does not contain a mens rea element or otherwise allows a conviction for merely negligent conduct.