A man who was 21 when he had consensual sex with his 17-year-old girlfriend won’t be deported for sexual abuse of a minor, the U.S. Supreme Court held May 30 (Esquivel-Quintana v. Sessions, U.S., No. 16-54, 5/30/17).

A “significant” number of removal orders could be affected by the decision because it’s an active area of the law, Jeffrey L. Fisher, who represented petitioner Juan Esquivel-Quintana, told Bloomberg BNA.

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The holding is a “good lesson” for the four circuits that just “rolled over” and deferred to the government’s argument without looking at the statutory language “or the sweep of the laws across the country,” Fisher, a professor at Stanford Law School, Stanford, California, and co-director of its Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, told Bloomberg BNA.

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The holding “sets the law straight” in this area and makes clear that “the more minor species of statutory rape” can’t trigger a deportation action, Fisher said.