On January 20, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that whenever the Attorney General declines the petition of a deportable alien to reopen his removal proceedings, the alien may file a lawsuit in federal court to challenge the denial. The Court so ruled despite acknowledging that whether to reopen a final removal order is a “discretionary” decision of the Attorney General. The decision was a setback for WLF, which filed a brief urging the Court not to permit such appeals. WLF argued that allowing appeals is a recipe for endless delays in the deportation process. WLF asserted that once the courts have affirmed a final removal order, the deportation process should be brought to an end, and the alien should not be permitted to tie the process in knots by filing repeated lawsuits. The Court held that a 1996 law – adopted to streamline the immigration appeals process – was not intended to prevent courts from reviewing an Attorney General decision not to reopen a removal case.