Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/6-11543.ZD.html
Timestamp: 2017-05-23 09:24:58
Document Index: 363992216

Matched Legal Cases: ['§924', '§924', '§924', '§924', '§924', '§924', '§924', '§1']

The statutory provision at issue in this case—the so-called “residual clause” of 18 U. S. C. §924(e)(2)(B)(ii)—calls out for legislative clarification, and I am sympathetic to the result produced by the Court’s attempt to craft a narrowing construction of this provision. Unfortunately, the Court’s interpretation simply cannot be reconciled with the statutory text, and I therefore respectfullydissent.
The Court does not hold that the maximum term of imprisonment that petitioner faced on his felony DUI convictions was less than one year.1 Nor does the Court dispute that petitioner’s offenses involved “a serious potential risk of physical injury to another.” Ibid. The only remaining question, therefore, is whether the risk presented by petitioner’s qualifying DUI felony convictions was “serious,” i.e., “significant” or “important.” See, e.g., Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 2073 (hereinafter Webster’s); (2002) 15 Oxford English Dictionary 15 (def. 6(a)) (2d ed. 1989) (hereinafter OED). In my view, it was.
Statistics dramatically show that driving under the influence of alcohol is very dangerous. Each year, approximately 15,000 fatal alcohol-related crashes occur, accounting for roughly 40% of all fatal crashes.2 Approximately a quarter million people are injured annually in alcohol-related crashes.3 The number of people who are killed each year by drunk drivers is far greater than the number of murders committed during any of the crimes specifically set out in the statutory provision at issue here, §924(e)(2)(B)(ii)—burglary, arson, extortion, and offenses involving the use of explosives.4
Petitioner’s qualifying offenses, moreover, fell within the statute only because he had been convicted of DUI on at least three prior occasions. As noted, petitioner had a dozen prior DUI convictions. Persons who repeatedly drive drunk present a greatly enhanced danger that they and others will be injured as a result.5 In addition, it has been estimated that the ratio of DUI incidents to DUI arrests is between 250 to 1 and 2,000 to 1.6 Accordingly, the risk presented by a 10th, 11th, and 12th DUI conviction may be viewed as the risk created by literally thousands of drunk-driving events. That risk was surely “serious,” and therefore petitioner’s offenses fell squarely within the language of the statute.
Moreover, taking the statutory language to mean what it says would not sweep in all DUI convictions. Most DUI convictions are not punishable by a term of imprisonment of more than one year and thus fall outside the scope of the statute.7 Petitioner’s convictions qualified only because of his extraordinary—and, I would say, extraordinarily dangerous—record of drunk driving.
This interpretation cannot be squared with the text of the statute, which simply does not provide that an offense must be “purposeful,” “violent,” or “aggressive” in order to fall within the residual clause. Rather, after listing burglary, arson, extortion, and explosives offenses, the statute provides (in the residual clause) that an offense qualifies if it “otherwise involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another.” Therefore, offenses falling within the residual clause must be similar to the named offenses in one respect only: They must, “otherwise”—which is to say, “in a different manner,” 10 OED 984 (def. B(1)); see also Webster’s 1598—“involve[] conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another.” Requiring that an offense must also be “purposeful,” “violent,” or “aggressive” amounts to adding new elements to the statute, but we “ordinarily resist reading words or elements into a statute that do not appear on its face.” Bates v. United States, 522 U. S. 23, 29 (1997)
Aggressive. The concept of “aggressive” crimes is vague, and in any event, it is hardly apparent why DUI—not to mention the species of felony DUI recidivism that resulted in petitioner’s predicament—is not “aggressive.” Driving can certainly involve “aggressive” conduct. Indeed, some States have created the offense of “aggressive driving.” See M. Savage, M. Sundeen, & A. Teigen, Traffic Safety and Public Health: State Legislative Action 2007, Transportation Series (National Conference of State Legislatures, Dec. 2007, No. 32), p. 17, and App. J, onlineat http://www.ncsl.org/print/transportation/07trafficsafety.pdf. Most States have a toll-free telephone number to call to report “aggressive” driving. See Campaign Safe & Sober, Phone Numbers for Reporting Impaired, Aggressive, or Unsafe Driving, online at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/outreach/safesobr/16qp/phone.html.
(“Congress meant to keep guns away from all offenders who, the Federal Government feared, might cause harm …”). And there is no dispute that a prior felony DUI conviction qualifies as a felony under the felon-in-possession law. If Congress thought that a person with a prior felony DUI conviction is not “the kind of person” who is likely to use a gun unlawfully, why would Congress have made it a crime for such a person to possess a gun?
Second, defendants with DUI convictions that are counted under 18 U. S. C. §924(e)(2)(B) are likely to have serious alcohol abuse problems. As previously mentioned, ordinary DUI convictions are generally not counted under §924(e) because they are not punishable by imprisonment for more than a year. Such penalties are generally reserved for persons, like petitioner, with a record of repeated DUI violations. SeeNational Conference of State Legislatures, supra.Such individuals are very likely to have serious alcohol abuse problems and a propensity to engage in irresponsible conduct while under the influence. Alcohol use often precedes violent crimes, see, e.g., Roizen, Epidemiological Issues in Alcohol-Related Violence, in 13 Recent Developments in Alcoholism 7, 8–9 (M. Galanter ed. 1997), and thus there is reason to worry about the misuse of firearms by defendants whose alcohol abuse problems are serious enough to result in felony DUIconvictions.
Finally, Justice Scalia’sconclusion that burglary is the least risky of the enumerated offenses is based on a procrustean reading of §924(e)(2)(B)(ii). This provision refers, without qualification, to “extortion.” In his dissent in James v. United States, 550 U. S. ___ (2007), Justice Scalia concluded that many forms of extortion are “inherently unlikely to cause physical harm.” Id., at ___ (slip op., at 10) (emphasis in original). Only by finding that the term “extortion” in §924(e)(2)(B)(ii) really means only certain forms of extortion was Justice Scalia able to come to the conclusion that burglary is the least risky of the enumerated offenses.
1 United States v. Gonzaga Rodriquez, now pending before the Court, presents the question “[w]hether a state drug-trafficking offense, for which state law authorized a ten-year sentence because the defendant was a recidivist, qualifies as a predicate offense under the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U. S. C. §924(e).” Pet. for Cert., O. T. 2007, No. 06–1646, p. I.
2 See the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Traffic Safety Facts Ann. Rep., p. 56, Table 34 (2006) (15,945 alcohol-related fatal crashes; 41%), (2005) (15,238; 39%), (2004) (14,968; 39%), (2003) (15,251; 40%), (2002) (15,626; 41%), (2001) (15,585; 41%), (2000) (14,847; 40%), (1999) (14,109; 38%), (1998) (14,278; 39%), (1997) (14,363; 38.5%), (1996) (15,249; 40.8%) online at http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/CMSWeb/listpublications.aspx?Id=E&ShowBy=DocType (all Internet materials as visited Apr. 11, 2008, and available in Clerk of Court’s case file); see also Michigan Dept. of State Police v. Sitz, 496 U. S. 444, 451 (1990)
(“No one can seriously dispute the magnitude of the drunken driving problem … . ‘Drunk drivers cause an annual death toll of over 25,000 and in the same time span cause nearly one million personal injuries …’ ”) (footnote omitted)); South Dakota v. Neville, 459 U. S. 553, 558 (1983)
(“The carnage caused by drunk drivers is well documented . . . . This Court . . . has repeatedly lamented the tragedy”).
4 According to statistics compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, between 1996 and 2006 total annual murders never exceeded 15,000 after 1997. During that same 11-year period, the highest number of murders committed in the course of burglary was 123, the number of murders committed in the course of arson peaked at 105, and the number of murders involving explosives topped out at 14—all in 1996. See Dept. of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports/Crime in the United States (Ann. Reps. 1996–2006), online at http://www.fbi.gov./ucr/ucr.htm#cius. While murders committed in the course of extortion were not separately reported, common sense and the fact that the total number of murders was similar to the number of fatal alcohol-related crashes at least after 1997 indicates that murders involving extortion would not rival deaths in alcohol-related auto accidents. Even if one were to expand beyond murders to all fatalities and even injuries, it is estimated that arson causes the relatively small number of 475 deaths and over 2,000 injuries annually. Dept. of Homeland Security, U. S. Fire Administration, Arson in the United States, Vol. 1 Topical Fire Research Series, No. 8 (Jan. 2001, rev. Dec. 2001), online at http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/tfrs/vli8-508.pdf.
513 (1994)); Dept. of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, Drunk Driving, Problem-Oriented Guides for Police, Problem-Specific Guides Series No. 36, p. 4 (Feb. 2006) (“By most estimates, although repeat drunk drivers comprise a relatively small proportion of the total population of drivers, they are disproportionately responsible for alcohol-related crashes and other problems associated with drunk driving”).
6 Brewer, supra, text accompanying nn. 23–24; L. Taylor & S. Oberman, Drunk Driving Defense §1.01 (2007).