Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Phinpathya

Decided January 10, 1984. Sandra Day O'Connor delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 82-91 · 464 U.S. 183 (1984) · Cited 404 times

Holding

Respondent did not meet 244(a)(1)'s "continuous physical presence" requirement.

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 9–0.

“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.

• Rosenberg v. Fleuti · 374 U.S. 449 (1963)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Jong Ha Wang · 450 U.S. 139 (1981)
• Richards v. United States · 369 U.S. 1 (1962)
• Lorillard v. Pons · 434 U.S. 575 (1978)
• Reiter v. Sonotone Corp. · 442 U.S. 330 (1979)
• Landon v. Plasencia · 459 U.S. 21 (1982)
• Lewis v. United States · 445 U.S. 55 (1980)
• American Tobacco Co. v. Patterson · 456 U.S. 63 (1982)
• Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. Curran · 456 U.S. 353 (1982)
• United States v. Kirby · 74 U.S. 482 (1869)
• Helvering v. Hammel · 311 U.S. 504 (1941)
• Jay v. Boyd · 351 U.S. 345 (1956)
• United States v. Katz · 271 U.S. 354 (1926)
• Federal Energy Administration v. Algonquin SNG, Inc. · 426 U.S. 548 (1976)

Cited by

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

• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Rios-Pineda · 471 U.S. 444 (1985)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Doherty · 502 U.S. 314 (1992)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Elias-Zacarias · 502 U.S. 478 (1992)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Cardoza-Fonseca · 480 U.S. 421 (1987)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Abudu · 485 U.S. 94 (1988)
• West Virginia University Hospitals, Inc. v. Casey · 499 U.S. 83 (1991)
• United States v. Mendoza-Lopez · 481 U.S. 828 (1987)
• Fernandez-Vargas v. Gonzales · 548 U.S. 30 (2006)
• Arave v. Creech · 507 U.S. 463 (1993)

Official text

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

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1984). 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).