Humberto Fernandez-Vargas v. Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General

Decided June 22, 2006. David Hackett Souter delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 04-1376 · 548 U.S. 30 (2006) · Cited 429 times

Holding

Section 241(a)(5) applies to those who reentered the United States before IIRIRA’s effective date and does not retroactively affect any right of, or impose any burden on, the continuing violator of the INA now before this Court.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 8–1.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Landgraf v. USI Film Products · 511 U.S. 244 (1994)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. St. Cyr · 533 U.S. 289 (2001)
• Lindh v. Murphy · 521 U.S. 320 (1997)
• Republic of Austria v. Altmann · 541 U.S. 677 (2004)
• Martin v. Hadix · 527 U.S. 343 (1999)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Cardoza-Fonseca · 480 U.S. 421 (1987)
• United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co. · 200 U.S. 321 (1906)
• Hughes Aircraft Co. v. United States Ex Rel. Schumer · 520 U.S. 939 (1997)
• Brewster v. Gage · 280 U.S. 327 (1930)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Phinpathya · 464 U.S. 183 (1984)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Vartelas v. Holder · 566 U.S. 257 (2012)
• Johnson v. Guzman Chavez · 594 U.S. 523 (2021)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

Explore from here

David Hackett Souter’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2006). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).