Supreme Court divides 5-4 in immigration case

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court split 5-4 Wednesday to let the Bush administration deport a British man for breaking the law in Mississippi.

Kiren Kumar Bharti's request for a stay was supported by the court's four most liberal members: Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. They did not explain their votes.

Bharti's case is similar to two appeals that justices agreed last month to consider. They ask whether immigrants can avoid deportation over some state drug convictions. Arguments will be late this year.

To win a Supreme Court stay requires five votes. President Bush's two nominees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, backed the government Wednesday, as did Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.

Bharti was convicted in Tupelo, Miss., of marijuana possession charges in 1998, the same year he was awarded permanent resident status. The government began deportation proceedings after he got into more trouble, including convictions for domestic violence and resisting arrest.

He has an appeal pending in a lower court, and Solicitor General Paul Clement told justices that the man's lawyer could still pursue that even after the deportation. "Bharti does not claim that he faces any risk of persecution or harm if he is removed to the United Kingdom," Clement wrote in a filing.

Bharti's lawyer, Thomas P. Adams of New Orleans, said in an appeal that Bharti has lived in America nearly 25 years and will leave behind many relatives including a young daughter.