Martin Jimenez v. Bruce Barber, District Director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service for the Thirteenth Immigration District, Undocketed

Martin Jimenez appeals from a decision of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in a suit for a declaratory judgment holding, in accord with the Attorney General’s decision, that he is not eligible to be considered for a suspension of deportation under 8 U.S.C. § 155 (now superseded by 8 U.S.C. § 1254 ). He seeks a stay of his deportation pending his appeal. We think that Jimenez has presented a substantial question for appeal and that the deportation should be stayed.

Jimenez alleges that he was held ineligible to apply for suspension of deportation because of his refusal to answer questions about his memberships, associations and beliefs before the five year period for which he had established good moral character under § 155. He contends that this procedure violated the guarantees of the First Amendment, and Article I, Section 9, Clause 3 (the Bill of Attainder clause) of the Constitution. Where governmental action effects an “indirect, conditional, partial abridgment” of free speech, that is, where one must give up a right or privilege as the cost of entertaining a belief, the Supreme Court has indicated each case rests on its own facts…