Donley v. Davi, 180 Cal.App.4th 447, 461 (Dec. 2, 2009), citing, People v. Crittenden (1994) 9 Cal.4th 83, 120, fn. 3, 36 Cal.Rptr.2d 474, 885 P.2d 887; Howard Contracting, Inc. v. G.A. MacDonald Construction Co. (1998) 71 Cal.App.4th 38, 52, 83 Cal.Rptr.2d 590 ["federal decisional authority is neither binding nor controlling in matters involving state law"].)

United States v. Rivera-Oros, 590 F.3d 1123 (10th Cir. Dec. 29, 2009) ("The definition and scope of the enumerated offenses are questions of federal law. The label that a state attaches to a crime under its laws does not determine whether it is a Guidelines enumerated offense."); see United States v. Servin-Acosta, 534 F.3d 1362, 1366 (10th Cir.2008) ("[W]e have rejected the notion that whether a state conviction was for an enumerated but undefined crime depends upon how the crime is characterized under state law. " (quoting United States v.

Rendon v. Holder, __ F.3d __ (9th Cir. Dec. 2, 2009) (Immigration Judge denied respondent a full and fair hearing by unreasonably limiting her testimony and denying her request for a continuance).

United States v. Bays, 589 F.3d 1035 (9th Cir. Dec. 17, 2009) (Idaho state pardon of two state controlled substances convictions was ineffective to expunge those convictions under USSG 4A1.2; convictions were properly considered in computing defendant's criminal history score since "Application Note 10 to section 4A1.2 states . . . that previous convictions which are 'set aside or ... pardoned for reasons unrelated to innocence or errors of law' are to be counted. Id. 4A1.2 cmt. n.10."); see United States v. Hayden, 255 F.3d 768, 770 (9th Cir.2001), cert. denied, 534 U.S.

United States v. Thomas, 355 F.3d 1191 (9th Cir. Jan. 26, 2004) (a guilty plea is an admission of the formal elements of a criminal charge, and by pleading guilty a defendant admits al the factual and legal elements necessary to sustain a finding of guilt; however, the entry of a guilty plea is not an admission of any facts other than those necessary to convict; the plea does not admit to facts necessary to be proven, beyond a reasonable doubt, to increase the maximum possible sentence under Apprendi).

Ljutica v. Holder, 588 F.3d 119 (2d Cir. Dec. 3, 2009) ("Outside the First Amendment context, we assess statutes for vagueness only as applied. United States v. Rybicki, 354 F.3d 124, 129-30 (2d Cir. 2003) (en banc). Accordingly, we must determine whether an ordinary person would understand that a conviction for an attempt to execute a scheme to defraud a bank under 18 U.S.C. 1344 would qualify under Subsection (U) as an "attempt" and whether Subsection (U) could be applied consistently to such convictions by CIS.").

Ljutica v. Holder, 588 F.3d 119 (2d Cir. Dec. 3, 2009) (res judicata did not foreclose Government argument that noncitizen was ineligible for naturalization as an aggravated felon where the Government could not have brought the argument during immigration proceedings because the offense of conviction was not an aggravated felony at the time of the original removal proceedings).

Ljutica v. Holder, 588 F.3d 119 (2d Cir. Dec. 3, 2009) (grant of a waiver under INA 212(c) does not prevent the waived conviction from barring naturalization as an aggravated felony).

Deus v. Holder, 591 F.3d 807 (5th Cir. Dec. 23, 2009) (noncitizen cannot impute mother's years of residence in the United States as a lawful permanent resident for purposes of qualifying for cancellation of removal), disagreeing with Cuevas-Gaspar v. Gonzales, 430 F.3d 1013 (9th Cir. 2005).



Note: although the court seemed sympathetic to the Cuevas-Gaspar argument, it found that the BIAs interpretation of the statute was reasonable under Chevron.

Hernandez v. Holder, __ F.3d __ (5th Cir. Dec. 30, 2009) (Texas conviction for violation of Texas Penal Code section 46.04(a), possession of a firearm by a felon, is an aggravated felony firearms offense; it is not necessary for a state offense to contain a federal jurisdictional element to be an offense "described in" 18 U.S.C. section 922(g)(1), and qualify as an aggravated felony under INA 101(a)(43)(E)), following Matter of Vasquez-Muniz, 23 I. & N. Dec. 207 (BIA 2002).