On this day in 1976 – John Lennon was awarded his ‘Green Card’ for permanent residency status, at a hearing in New York which overturned previous efforts by the US Government to deport him. The three judge panel of the US Court of Appeals ruled that his 1968 arrest in Britain for possession of marijuana was “contrary to US ideas of due process and was invalid as a means of banishing the former Beatle from America.”

Lennon, dressed in a black suit, white shirt and black tie, appeared tense and serious during much of the one‐hour hearing, but there were moments of levity that made him laugh, along with others in the Immigration and Naturalization Service hearing room at 20 West Broadway.

Gloria Swanson, Geraldo Rivera, Norman Mailer, the sculptor Isamu Noguchi and Samuel Trust, who administers the rights to Mr. Lennon’s Music, all came to his defense, describing him as a generous and public‐minded person as well as an important artist to welcome to the American music scene.

Source: Wikipedia / New York Times