A Haitian-born naturalized American will take his fight to the Supreme Court, continuing the battle against the federal government’s efforts to remove his citizenship based on a prior criminal record, announced the court Thursday.

In a report from the Miami Herald Andre Pierre, attorney for plaintiff Lionel Jean-Baptiste, said he hopes the high court will hear the case and prevent his client from being deported to Haiti.

The move comes five months after an appellate court ruled that the federal government can strip Jean-Baptiste of his citizenship for a crime committed before he became a citizen.

The case marks the first time, at least in the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit U.S. Courts of Appeals’ jurisdictional area, that the government is seeking to revoke the citizenship of a naturalized person indicted, arrested and convicted after becoming a citizen.

The case stems from an undercover officer’s testimony that Jean-Baptiste helped arrange crack cocaine purchases in 1995. Jean-Baptiste denies the allegations, but he was convicted in 1996 – after he became a citizen.

Typically, the government seeks to revoke citizenship when people have lied in naturalization applications about a criminal record. In Jean-Baptiste’s case, the government said he did not deserve citizenship because he committed a crime while awaiting approval of his application.