The facts
The Supreme Court will no longer hear an oral argument in a case concerning bond rights for noncitizens detained for extended periods. This decision comes after New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul pardoned Keisy Guerrero Mariano, a Dominican citizen convicted of second-degree assault. The pardon, issued in late August, effectively ended the Trump administration's appeal. The appeal argued that noncitizens, even those with green card status, do not have a constitutional right to a bond hearing if they have committed crimes making them eligible for mandatory deportation. Solicitor General John Sauer stated the administration will seek an alternative case to challenge the Second Circuit's ruling that prolonged detention can trigger a right to a bond hearing. Iowa's solicitor general, Eric Wessan, criticized the pardon on X, calling it an attempt to prevent deportation and halt a Supreme Court ruling.
Our take
Governor Kathy Hochul just pulled a legal drive-by, pardoning a guy who beat the shit out of someone, specifically to kneecap a Supreme Court case. The Trump administration was trying to argue that if you’re a noncitizen convicted of a serious crime, you can rot in ICE detention without a bond hearing forever. Hochul’s pardon memo basically read: ‘Fuck your forever, and fuck your court date.’
She didn't just pardon some jaywalker. This was a second-degree assault conviction. The guy served time and was facing mandatory deportation. Hochul looked at that record, looked at the Supreme Court's docket, and decided her pardon pen was a better tool for immigration policy than any fucking law. The Solicitor General is now scrambling to find another human being to use as a ‘vehicle’ to get this issue before the justices. It’s like a perverse game of constitutional hot potato, where the potato is a human being and the goal is to avoid a ruling.
The Iowa solicitor general called it ‘wild’ on X, which is the polite, legal way of saying ‘what a profoundly cynical, chickenshit move.’ He’s right. How many felons is a governor willing to fully exonerate just to spike a legal football? It turns a solemn act of clemency into a tactical nuke against judicial review. The administration’s argument about no bond hearings was brutal and stupid, but dodging the Supreme Court with a pardon is the political equivalent of unplugging the console because you’re losing the video game.
Now the whole constitutional question - can the government lock people up indefinitely without a hearing - is back in limbo. The feds have to go find another poor bastard to make their point, and Hochul gets to smugly claim a humanitarian victory while freeing a violent criminal. Everyone involved is covered in slime, the law is a joke, and the only clear winner is a convicted assaulter who just won the governor-powered Get Out of Deportation Free card. What a fucking system.
