supreme court case

In the Supreme Court case LOPEZ v. GONZALES. Lopez, a legal permanent resident alien, pleads guilty in South Dakota charges of aiding and abetting another person's possession of cocaine. According to state law even though he hadn't possessed the cocaine him self it was still ruled a felony."The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) began removal proceedings on the ground, inter alia, that Lopez’s state conviction was for an aggravated felony. The Immigration Judge ultimately ruled that despite the CSA’s treatment of Lopez’s crime as a misdemeanor it was an aggravated felony under the INA owing to its being a felony under state law”, http://supreme.justia.com/us/549/05-547/index.html. If an illegal alien or legal permanent alien is convicted of a felony under federal law he will be deported. The case was given to the Supreme Court because even though Lopez was convicted as a felony under state law but was a misdemeanor under federal law he was not deported. Justice Thomas accepted the Government's interpretation of the phrase "felony punishable under the Controlled Substances Act." Because Lopez's crime was a felony under South Dakota law, and the CSA provided for punishment for his crime, he had committed an aggravated felony. "The classification [of a crime as a felony or a misdemeanor] depends only on the authorized term of imprisonment." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lopez_v._Gonzales