The U.S. Supreme Court held that when the government forbids a citizen’s non-citizen spouse from entering the nation without cause, the citizen’s constitutional rights are not violated.
In a 6-3 ruling on Friday, June 21, the court ruled that Sandra Munoz, a citizen of the United States and civil rights attorney, could not contest the denial of her husband’s visa application by the Department of State because the agency took three years to provide an explanation for its suspicions that he was a member of a gang.
In the US, a refusal of a visa cannot be challenged in court unless the decision was the result of constitutional rights violations by the government. This decision implies that a non-citizen spouse of a US citizen may be refused entry into the nation without a reason. Thus, non-citizens’ entrance to the US and its territories is not assured.
According to court documents, Munoz and her spouse, whom she wed in 2010 and had a child with, have been divorced since 2015.
On Friday, Munoz filed a petition alleging that her fundamental right to marriage was violated by the delay in providing an explanation for the refusal, but her claim was denied by the Supreme Court.
After the State Department refused to reevaluate its prior refusal of her husband’s visa and without providing an explanation for its decision, Munoz filed a lawsuit against the government in 2017. In order to seek for a visa, Munoz’s husband—who has no criminal history and has denied any association with a gang—travelled to El Salvador.
According to Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s ruling for the court, her claim “involves more than marriage and more than spousal cohabitation—it includes the right to have her non-citizen husband enter (and remain in) the United States.”
The verdict overturns a 2022 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, located in San Francisco, which brought Munoz’s claim against the State back to life.
The decision was applauded by the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a conservative organization that supported the State Department in a brief it filed.
The executive director and general counsel of the organization, Dale Wilcox, stated in a statement that “to hold for this couple would let those Americans who choose to marry dangerous aliens force their choice on the rest of us.”
