U.S. Supreme Court Decides Chaidez; Padilla Not Retroactive

Some of you might have already heard that the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Chaidez v. United States today.  The news is not good, especially for those who had hoped the Court would confer to all foreign nationals the benefit of Padilla.  Justice Kagan wrote the majority opinion which was joined in full by the other Justices with the exception of Thomas who concurred in the judgment only and Sotomayor and Ginsburg both of whom dissented.  I will provide some analysis on the decision in a separate post.  The opinion can be downloaded here.