The government should have the right to deport long-term legal immigrants -- even military veterans and business owners -- if they are convicted of drug possession, the Bush administration told the U.S. Supreme Court this week.

The Los Angeles Times reported Oct. 4 that the high court heard arguments in a case centering on a decade-old federal law allowing deportation of legal immigrants who commit "aggravated felonies." The language of the law focuses on drug traffickers and other major felons, but the federal government has used the law to deport immigrants who plead guilty to drug possession, even in cases where only small amounts of drugs were involved.

States like Florida, Nevada, North Dakota, and Oregon consider possession of even small amounts of marijuana a felony, even where federal law considers it a minor offense. "Isn't that very strange that Congress would have wanted a reading of the statute that would turn its definition of a misdemeanor crime into an aggravated felony for purposes of the immigration laws?" asked Justice David Souter, discussing the intent of lawmakers who crafted the original law.

But Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler said that the law calls for a felony under state law to be treated as a felony under federal law, thus supporting a case for deportation.

Chief Justice John Roberts told Kneeler, "It must give you pause that your analysis of a term 'drug trafficking' offense ... leads to the conclusion that simple possession equates with drug trafficking."