Luna Torres v. Lynch
Supreme Court of the United States
136 S. Ct. 1619 (2016)
Luna Torres (plaintiff), a lawful permanent resident, pleaded guilty to state attempted arson, and immigration officials sought his removal on the ground that this conviction was an aggravated felony matching the federal arson statute listed in the INA — except the state crime, unlike its federal counterpart, contained no requirement that the destroyed building be connected to interstate commerce. Luna argued this missing jurisdictional element meant the state crime could never qualify as the listed aggravated felony, and the lower courts rejected that argument.
Whether, when determining if a state offense counts as an aggravated felony under Section 101(a)(43) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the existence of an interstate commerce element may properly be ignored.