Noriega-Perez
Noriega-Perez v. United States
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Roll, J.
Petitioner Alberto Noriega-Perez appeals from a summary decision of an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) imposing a monetary fine for civil document fraud. The civil action was commenced after Noriega-Perez had entered a plea of guilty to conspiracy to possess forged, counterfeit, and false documents. The summary decision is affirmed.
I. Background
On December 2, 1992, Noriega-Perez was indicted in the District Court for the Southern District of California for conspiracy to possess forged, counterfeit, and false immigration documents. Thereafter, Noriega-Perez entered a plea of guilty to one count of “Conspiracy to Possess Forged, Counterfeit, and False Documents” in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 371 and 1546. The district court accepted the guilty plea, fined Noriega-Perez $20,000, and sentenced him to 18 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release. Noriega-Perez did not file an appeal, but his sentence was reduced in June 1994 to time served and the fine reduced to $5,000 pursuant to a petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
Two months after Noriega-Perez’s guilty plea, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) issued a Notice of Intent to Fine…
Dissenting Opinion
Ferguson, J.
Dissenting:
Under today’s ruling, the majority holds that Congress has the power to authorize *1179 the criminal punishment of an illegal act before an administrative tribunal that has only minimal oversight from Article III courts. It is surprising to me that the Ninth Circuit disregards the constitutional separation of powers for the sake of increasing the administrative bureaucracy in this manner. As I read the Constitution, Article III prohibits such Congressional redistribution of the judicial power.
The majority’s decision is wrong for two reasons. First, it incorrectly concludes that the penalty imposed on Noriega-Perez is not a form of criminal punishment for Article III purposes. Second, it completely fails to understand that Article III and the doctrine of separation of powers prohibits Congress from giving an administrative agency the power to adjudicate the criminal punishment present in this case. I will address both of those problems in turn.
I
A good portion of the majority opinion focuses on analyzing 8 U.S.C. § 1324c under Hudson v. United States, 522 U.S. 93 , 118 S.Ct. 488 , 139 L.Ed.2d 450 (1997), and concluding that petitioner was not punished…