WASHINGTON (CN) - After blocking the deportation of a Tunisian math professor convicted of hiding Adderall in his sock, the Supreme Court vacated its stay Monday.
Moones Mellouli came to the United State from Tunisia on a student visa a decade ago and went on to earn two master's degrees before teaching mathematics at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
In 2010, the professor was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of using a sock to conceal his possession of four orange tablets that he later admitted were the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder treatment Adderall.
Mellouli was sentenced to a suspended term of 359 days and 12 months' probation.
Once Mellouli had completed probation, however, immigration officers arrested the man for deportation under Section 1227(a)(2)(B)(1) of Title 8, which permits the government to remove noncitizens convicted of violating any state or federal law related to a controlled substance.
Since the state court record of Mellouli's conviction did not identify the controlled substance at issue, however, Mellouli contended that the government failed to prove that the conviction related to a federal controlled substance, as the statute requires.
The 8th Circuit rejected his challenge last year, but the Supreme Court reversed in June and later issued Mellouli a stay of the administrative immigration proceedings against him.
Docket records show that Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Mellouli moved jointly last month to vacate the stay.
The justices signed off on the order Monday without comment. The order list of which this case is a part contains dozens of denials of certiorari and no grants.
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