Opinion of the Court
file a motion to reconsider. But that is a peculiar understanding of a remedy available “as of right.” The Government identifies no other provision that uses “as of right” to describe the right to file a motion that appeals to the decisionmaker’s discretion. Tr. of Oral Arg. 35. A discretionary appeal, for example, is not “as of right” just because a litigant has a right to file a petition for permission to appeal. See, e.g., 28 U. S. C. §1292(b); Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 23(f).
That understanding of “as of right” is so unnatural that even the Government does not fully embrace it, as its view of other forms of relief reveals. Cancellation of removal, voluntary departure, and adjustment of status are discretionary types of immigration relief available to noncitizens only as a matter of grace, not entitlement. 8 U. S. C. §§1229b, 1229c, 1255; see Kucana v. Holder, 558 U. S. 233, 247–248 (2010). And the Government accordingly volunteers them as examples of remedies “not ‘available’ to [a noncitizen] ‘as of right.’ ” Brief for Respondent 39 (quoting §1252(d)(1)). Yet eligible noncitizens can file requests for those forms of relief. See §§1229b, 1229c, 1255; 8 CFR §§1240.20, 1240.26, 1245.1. Even the Government does not say these are remedies available “as of right” just because noncitizens have a right to request them.
The Government’s reading has a further flaw. Understanding the motion for reconsideration as a remedy “available … as of right” does not just read “as of right” unnaturally; it reads it out of §1252(d)(1) altogether. Under the Government’s view, there is a remedy that is “available … as of right” here because the noncitizen is entitled to request reconsideration by filing a motion. See Brief for Respondent 38–39. But if a noncitizen could not request reconsideration, there would be no remedy “available” for the noncitizen to exhaust. The statute’s additional requirement that the remedy be available “as of right” would be entirely superfluous. Instead, we read the phrase “as of right” to do its usual work in the context of review of a legal
