Which judge wrote the 1975 ruling that blocked Lennon's deportation?

The judge who wrote the 1975 ruling blocking John Lennon’s deportation was Irving Kaufman.

Kaufman was chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which reviewed Lennon’s immigration case in October 1975. The dispute centered on Lennon’s 1968 British conviction for possession of cannabis resin. U.S. immigration authorities had treated that conviction as grounds to exclude or deport him.

In the court’s ruling, Kaufman concluded that the conviction did not fit the relevant provision of U.S. immigration law. The decision overturned the deportation effort and sharply criticized the possibility that Lennon had been targeted for political reasons because of his anti-war activism. Kaufman wrote that courts would not accept selective deportation based on secret political grounds.

This case is often simplified as a judge merely “saving” Lennon, but the legal reasoning was technical as well as political. The court interpreted the statutory language governing drug convictions, while also recognizing the troubling context of the Nixon administration’s interest in Lennon. The ruling stopped the immediate deportation attempt; it did not itself grant Lennon permanent residency. That final status came the following year.