Hosam Maher Husein Smadi (inset), a 19-year-old Jordanian man previously charged with plotting to blow up a Dallas office building, was indicted by a federal grand jury yesterday for attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction (WMD), and bomb a public parking garage.

According to the criminal complaint initially filed in the case, FBI agents had a virtual introduction to Smadi on the Web via "an online group of extremists."  FBI Agent Daniel Petrowski contended that "Smadi stood out based on his vehement intention to actually conduct terror attacks in the United States."

A federal appeals court reversed the U.S. government's decision for denying a Muslim scholar's entry into the U.S., holding that Tariq Ramadan was improperly denied an entry visa by a U.S. Consular official without first being given a chance to show that he knew, or should have known, that he donated money to a European charity that gave funds to Hamas, a U.S. State Department-designated terrorist organization.

The ruling (below) sends the case back to the U.S. District court to allow Ramadan to show "by clear and convincing evidence that he did not know, and reasonably should not have known, that the recipient of his contributions was a terrorist organization."

The Supreme Court, in an opinion released today, has decided that immigrants seeking a stay of their removal from the United States while they appeal the removal order don't need to meet the restrictive requirements of  8 U. S. C. §1252(f)(2) before a court can issue a stay.  Instead, the Court says that the traditional, more lenient, criteria governing stays should control the issue.

This does not necessarily mean that immigrants will have an easier time obtaining such a stay, however.  The Court, in a majority opinion authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, explicitly states that appeals courts cannot assume that the balance of hardships favors applicants.