Reno v. Catholic Social Services, Inc.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 created an amnesty program letting unlawfully present foreign nationals legalize their status if they applied by a statutory deadline, and barred judicial review of agency denials of applications. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) (defendant) issued regulations narrowing who could qualify and instructed employees to "front desk" (reject before formal filing) applications that didn't meet those regulations. Catholic Social Services and others (plaintiffs) sued in two class actions challenging the regulations, and evidence showed some applications had indeed been front desked. The district courts ruled for the plaintiffs, the cases were consolidated on appeal and affirmed, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari on the jurisdiction question.