Expert: Supreme Court Visa Decision Not The End of the Road

"The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday against strengthening marriage rights for binational couples who wish to live together in the United States.  Justices found in Kerry v. Din that naturalized U.S. citizen Fauzia Din cannot force greater explanation about or overturn in court the rejection of her Afghan husband Kanishka Berashk’s visa application.  The couple married in 2006.  A year later, Din became an American citizen and Berashk requested a U.S. visa to join her.  But his prior work in the Taliban-controlled government of Afghanistan apparently derailed the plan.  U.S. consular officials in Pakistan rejected his visa request, citing a broad terrorism-related statute.  The court split three ways, with a three-vote plurality led by Justice Antonin Scalia finding no “liberty interest” entitling Din to due process and the right to challenge the rejection on her husband’s behalf. ... Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration expert who teaches at Cornell University Law School, says the decision “continues a long line of Supreme Court cases that hold when it comes to immigration that consular official have carte blanche to deny a visa and it’s very hard to get those denials overturned in federal court.”  But Yale-Loehr sees reconsideration of the issue as possible in the future." - U.S. News & World Report, June 15, 2015.