It has been understandably obscured by other news. But, on September 2, in Ozurumba v. Bondi, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that performing forced labor for a terrorist organization does not qualify as "material support"for terrorism barring a migrant from applying for asylum in the United States.
The 2-1 decision broke with a 2018 ruling by the Justice Department Board of Immigration Appeals, in Matter of A-C-M, which held that even "de minimis" forced labor for a terrorist organization qualifies as material support (regular federal courts are not bound by BIA precedents). A-C-M may be the worst modern judicial decision I have seen issued in over twenty years as a legal scholar. So I am glad the Fourth Circuit ruled a different way. But I fear the majority opinion by Judge Andrew Wynn didn't pick up on the best rationale for that result.
