Jean Marc Nken v. Eric H. Holder, Jr., Attorney General

Decided April 22, 2009. John Glover Roberts Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 08-681 · 556 U.S. 418 (2009) · Cited 3,500 times

We don’t yet publish a summary of this opinion — read the official text below for the Court’s holding and reasoning.

How the Justices voted

Decided 7–2.

“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.

• Scripps-Howard Radio, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission · 316 U.S. 4 (1942)
• Reno v. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee · 525 U.S. 471 (1999)
• Virginian Railway Co. v. United States · 272 U.S. 658 (1927)
• Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · 555 U.S. 7 (2008)
• Hilton v. Braunskill · 481 U.S. 770 (1987)
• Weinberger v. Romero-Barcelo · 456 U.S. 305 (1982)
• Stone v. Immigration & Naturalization Service · 514 U.S. 386 (1995)
• Landis v. North American Co. · 299 U.S. 248 (1936)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Cardoza-Fonseca · 480 U.S. 421 (1987)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. St. Cyr · 533 U.S. 289 (2001)
• Robinson v. Shell Oil Co. · 519 U.S. 337 (1997)
• Martin v. Franklin Capital Corp. · 546 U.S. 132 (2005)
• Clinton v. Jones · 520 U.S. 681 (1997)
• Reiter v. Sonotone Corp. · 442 U.S. 330 (1979)
• Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. v. Mayacamas Corp. · 485 U.S. 271 (1988)
• Hill v. McDonough · 547 U.S. 573 (2006)
• Dada v. Mukasey · 554 U.S. 1 (2008)
• Isbrandtsen Co. v. Johnson · 343 U.S. 779 (1952)
• Florida Department of Revenue v. Piccadilly Cafeterias, Inc. · 554 U.S. 33 (2008)

Cited by

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

• Coinbase, Inc. v. Bielski · 599 U.S. 736 (2023)
• Garland v. Gonzalez · 596 U.S. 543 (2022)
• Bucklew v. Precythe · 587 U.S. 119 (2019)
• Trump v. CASA, Inc. · 606 U.S. 831 (2025)
• Ohio v. Environmental Protection Agency · 603 U.S. 279 (2024)
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo · 592 U.S. 14 (2020)
• Santos-Zacaria v. Garland · 598 U.S. 411 (2023)
• Alabama Assn. of Realtors v. Department of Health and Human Servs. · 594 U.S. 758 (2021)
• Moyle v. United States · 603 U.S. 324 (2024)
• Chafin v. Chafin · 568 U.S. 165 (2013)
• Kucana v. Holder · 558 U.S. 233 (2010)
• A.A.R.P. v. Trump · 605 U.S. 91 (2025)
• Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T Inc. · 562 U.S. 397 (2011)
• Ramirez v. Collier · 595 U.S. 411 (2022)
• Biden v. Missouri · 595 U.S. 87 (2022)
• Unicolors, Inc. v. H&M Hennes & Mauritz, L. P. · 595 U.S. 178 (2022)
• Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney · 602 U.S. 339 (2024)
• Chicago v. Fulton · 592 U.S. 154 (2021)
• Monsalvo Velazquez v. Bondi · 604 U.S. 712 (2025)
• Department of Education v. California · 604 U.S. 650 (2025)

Official text

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

Explore from here

John Glover Roberts Jr.’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: the U.S. Reports via govinfo.gov; authoring Justice and vote lineup from the Supreme Court Database (Washington University). 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).