By Courthouse News Service

PASADENA, Calif. - Because chronic alcoholism is a medical disability, the Ninth Circuit called it unconstitutional to classify a "habitual drunkard" as lacking good moral character, reversing a deportation order 2-1 Thursday.

     The immigrant here, Salomon Ledezma-Cosino aka Cocino Soloman Ledesma, is a construction worker who entered the United States from Mexico in 1997. After 10 years of alcohol abuse that included drinking an average of one liter of tequila a day, Ledezma-Cosino has acute alcoholic hepatitis and decompensated cirrhosis of the liver.

To Learn More:

Lawyers Three Times More Likely to Become Problem Drinkers than General Population (by Jeff D. Gorman, Courthouse News Service)

Who is Binge Drinking? (by Jenny Kim, AllGov)