Appearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit last year in an undocumented immigrant smuggling case, Harini Raghupathi had history on her side. But she didn’t have precedent.

Raghupathi was arguing that the government had unfairly deported a helpful witness before she could testify or even give an interview to defense counsel. A similar 2003 case, U.S. v. Ramirez-Lopez, had provoked a furious dissent by Chief Judge Alex Kozinski and the dismissal of charges.