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No appeal filed vs stateless persons yet
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Posted on Feb 13 2005
A court ruling favoring the granting of U.S. citizenship to “stateless” individuals in the CNMI has so far not been appealed with the U.S. Supreme Court.
The deadline to appeal the decision handed by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last year was on Feb. 13.
If no appeal is entered on that day, it would make the ruling final and executory, making hundreds of the so-called stateless people in the CNMI U.S. citizens.
When reached yesterday, Gov. Juan N. Babauta said his office has not learned of any appeal.
“No one has filed. There’s no record so far reflecting there’s an appeal filed (with the Supreme Court),” said the governor.
He said his office will be closely monitoring the case.
He said that since the deadline falls on a Sunday, it may be extended to the next working day, which is on Monday, Feb. 14 (Tuesday here).
The U.S. Acting Solicitor General, Department of Justice has not filed any further applications for extension, based on its website.
Supreme Court rules provide that a petitioner shall have a maximum of 60 days to appeal a case.
In particular, Revised Rule 13.5 of the Court says that for a good cause, a justice may extend the time for a writ of certiorari for 60 days.
The rules, however, require that the application must be filed with the clerk “at least 10 days before the date the petition is due, except in extraordinary circumstances.”
The application can be filed through a postmarked mail, meaning the document was mailed on or before the last day for filing.
Rule 30 said if the deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or a federal legal holiday, the period shall extend until the end of the next work day.
The petitioner, the U.S. DOJ, may file a petition for a writ of certiorari, which may be issued to review and inspect the proceedings in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and determine if there have been any irregularities.
On Dec. 2, 2004, the U.S. DOJ submitted an application for extension of time to file petition for writ of certiorari from Dec. 15 to Jan. 14, 2005.
On Dec. 3, the Supreme Court, through Justice O’Connor, granted the request.
On Jan. 4, the Justice department again petitioned the High Court to further extend it to Feb. 13.
