The Fourth Circuit has granted in part a petition for review filed by a Mexican lawful permanent resident denied a waiver of inadmissibility because a state court vacated her marijuana conviction only after the immigration judge's decision, holding that a vacated conviction no longer renders a noncitizen an "alien convicted of" a controlled-substance offense.
Declining to follow the BIA's longstanding framework distinguishing convictions vacated for substantive defects from those vacated for other reasons, the Court held that the statutory phrase describes a person's current legal status, not a mere historical fact, and that the background principle that vacated judgments are void ab initio confirms that a vacated conviction no longer counts against a noncitizen. The Court separately upheld as reasonable the regulations governing the timing of voluntary departure after a petition for review is filed, rejecting the petitioner's argument that they arbitrarily reward noncitizens who wait longer to seek review.
The full text of Yanez Piedra v. Blanche can be found here: https://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/251258.P.pdf