Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/503

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Cite as: 502 U. S. 314 (1992)

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Opinion of Scalia, J.

The Court of Appeals also concluded that an evidentiary hearing is always necessary for withholding claims because the types of issues they present—for example, whether an alien’s serious crimes were “political”—“raise formidable questions of fact that cannot be adequately resolved in the absence of an evidentiary record.” 908 F. 2d, at 1117. That is usually true, but surely not always; as in the ordinary civil context, there will be cases in which the paper record presented in connection with a claim, see Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 56, or the record of an earlier hearing, will establish uncontroverted facts showing that the claim fails as a matter of law. Indeed, we recognized in Abudu that an evidentiary hearing may be denied if an alien requesting reopening fails to make a prima facie case for the relief sought, 485 U. S., at 104, despite the fact-intensive nature of the questions involved. Concluding that the Court of Appeals erred in applying a per se rule that withholding claims cannot be resolved without an evidentiary hearing, I would vacate that portion of its judgment which orders a hearing. Before such an order can be entered, the court must consider whether the record before the Attorney General was sufficiently developed that, taken together with matters that are properly subject to notice, it provided the requisite degree of support for the conclusion that the serious crimes Doherty has admitted committing were “nonpolitical.” I would remand the case to the Court of Appeals for consideration under that standard.