Aronov v. Chertoff (8/1/08)

Lynch (dissenting), Tashima, LIPEZ

Finding both that Aronov was the prevailing party, that the government was not substantially justified in the delay and that the government was not entitled to Chevron deference, the First Circuit upheld the district court’s order granting Aronov’s EAJA application.  The Court found that the District Court was correct in holding that there was “a material alteration of the legal relationship of the parties” since Aronov went from being an LPR to a USC and that there was a “judicial imprimatur on the change” as it was the order of the court remanding Aronov’s case back to USCIS so that it could grant his naturalization by a set date. 

Furthermore, the Court rejected the government’s argument that the delay was substantially justified. The government attended to argue that under 8 U.S.C. § 1446(a) and the 1998 Appropriations Act require USCIS to wait for the FBI background check to clear before taking action on deciding a naturalization case.  The Court found that there was no such requirement in either of the above statutes.  The Court concluded that “In light of the120-day statutory directive, the agency’s long delay (over four times the statutory period), and the absence of any evidence that the government tried to expedite Aronov’s application to comply with the statute, the government’s conduct toward Aronov can only be classified as unreasonable and not substantially justified.”  Therefore, the Court upheld the District Court’s EAJA finding and remanded back so that the fee award may be recalculated to reflect the costs of the appeal.

Read Opinion Here...

Comments

Add New Search

Write comment
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Website:
Title:
UBBCode:	-color-aquablackbluefuchsiagraygreenlimemaroonnavyolivepurpleredsilvertealwhiteyellow -size-tinysmallmediumlargehuge
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Powered by !JoomlaComment 3.12

Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.