Ramon Ramirez-Alejandre v. John Ashcroft, Attorney General

Opinion by Judge THOMAS; Dissent by Judge TROTT.

ORDER

The dissent to the opinion filed February 13, 2003, is hereby amended to replace the line TROTT, Circuit Judge, dissenting, to TROTT, Circuit Judge, dissenting, with whom O’SCANNLAIN, GOULD, TALL-MAN, and RAWLINSON, Circuit Judges, join.

OPINION

In the book Bang the Drum, Slowly, members of the fictional New York Mammoths amused themselves by drawing in dupes with a card scam known as “Teg-war,” which was an acronym for “The Exciting Game Without Any Rules.” Mark Harris, BANG THE DRUM S LOWLY 8 (Alfred A. Knoff, Ine.1956). The mark, lured into the game by the players’ enthusiasm, would be given a handful of cards and encouraged to make wild bids using a weird vocabulary of calls that changed from round to round. Id. at 48, 60-64. The poor cluck would always lose but would be reassured of the game’s legitimacy by the veneer of rationality that appeared to overlie the seemingly sophisticated game.

For years, the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) played a variant of Teg-war in its procedural treatment of appeals from suspension of deportation decisions issued by immigration judges (“Us”). Until recently, aliens who could…

Dissenting,

320 F.3d 858 Ramon RAMIREZ-ALEJANDRE, Petitioner, v. John ASHCROFT, Attorney General, Respondent. No. 00-70724. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Submitted November 7, 2001. Filed January 9, 2002. Reheard En Banc Argued and Submitted June 20, 2002. Filed February 13, 2003. Amended February 14, 2003. COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED Jonathan M. Kaufman, Kaufman Law Office, San Francisco, CA, for the petitioner. Michael T. Dougherty (briefed) and David Kline (argued), United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Office of Immigration Litigation, Washington, DC, for the respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. INS No. Asy-tdu-msf. Before: SCHROEDER, Chief Judge, O'SCANNLAIN, TROTT, TASHIMA, THOMAS, W. FLETCHER, GOULD, PAEZ, BERZON, TALLMAN and RAWLINSON, Circuit Judges. 1 Opinion by Judge THOMAS; Dissent by Judge TROTT. ORDER 2 The dissent to the opinion filed February 13, 2003, is hereby amended to replace the line TROTT, Circuit Judge, dissenting, to TROTT, Circuit Judge, dissenting, with whom O'SCANNLAIN, GOULD, TALLMAN, and RAWLINSON, Circuit Judges, join. OPINION THOMAS, Circuit Judge: 3 In the book Bang the Drum Slowly,…