On February 25, 2020, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in United States v. Sineneng-Smith. At issue was 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv), which imposes criminal penalties on any person who “encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence in is or will be in violation of law.”

As written in a post on SCOTUSblog:

At argument, the fundamental question was what it means to “encourage” or “induce” unlawful presence: Do the words have their ordinary meaning as the 9th Circuit found, or, as the government argued, do they really connote the criminal law terms “aiding and abetting” and “solicitation”? The work of two law professors was prominent in the argument: Eugene Volokh, whose amicus brief induced many questions from the justices, and Wayne LaFave, whose “Criminal Law” treatise was referred to repeatedly.

Read the full blog post at scotusblog.com.