Demore v. Kim, 538 U.S. 510, 27 (2003)

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536

DEMORE v. KIM

Opinion of O'Connor, J.

The Court also focused in St. Cyr on the absence of any language in the relevant statutory provisions making explicit reference to habeas review under 28 U. S. C. § 2241. See 533 U. S., at 313, n. 36. This statutory silence spoke volumes, the Court reasoned, in light of the "historic use of § 2241 jurisdiction as a means of reviewing deportation and exclusion orders," ibid. In contrast, there is no analogous history of routine reliance on habeas jurisdiction to challenge the detention of aliens without bail pending the conclusion of removal proceedings. We have entertained such challenges only twice, and neither was successful on the merits. See Reno v. Flores, 507 U. S. 292 (1993); Carlson v. Landon, 342 U. S. 524 (1952). See also Neuman, Habeas Corpus, Executive Detention, and the Removal of Aliens, 98 Colum. L. Rev. 961, 1067, n. 120 (1998) (distinguishing detention pursuant to a final order of removal from the interlocutory detention at issue here). Congress' failure to mention § 2241 in this context therefore lacks the significance that the Court accorded Congress' silence on the issue in St. Cyr. In sum, nothing in St. Cyr requires us to interpret 8 U. S. C. § 1226(e) to mean anything other than what its plain language says.

I recognize that the two Courts of Appeals that have considered the issue have held that § 1226(e) does not preclude habeas claims such as respondent's. See Patel v. Zemski, 275 F. 3d 299 (CA3 2001); Parra v. Perryman, 172 F. 3d 954 (CA7 1999). In Parra, the Seventh Circuit held that § 1226(e) does not bar "challenges to § 1226(c) itself, as opposed to decisions implementing that subsection." Id., at 957. Though the Court's opinion today relies heavily on this distinction, I see no basis for importing it into the plain language of the statute.

The Seventh Circuit sought support from our decision in Reno v. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Comm., 525 U. S. 471 (1999) (AADC), but our holding there supports my reading of § 1226(e). In AADC, the Court construed a statute that sharply limits review of claims "arising from the

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