Opinion ID: 429493
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: analysis

Text: 19 The ex post facto clause, U.S. Const. art. I, Sec. 9, cl. 3, forbids the Government from passing any law which punishes as a crime an act previously committed which was innocent when done; or [which] imposes additional punishment to that then proscribed. Weaver v. Graham, 450 U.S. 24, 28, 101 S.Ct. 960, 963, 67 L.Ed.2d 17 (1981) (quoting Cummings v. Missouri, 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) 277, 325-26, 18 L.Ed. 356 (1867)). The purposes of the clause are to provide fair warning about new punishments and to discourage arbitrary and oppressive legislation. Weaver, 450 U.S. at 28, 101 S.Ct. at 963; Dobbert v. Florida, 432 U.S. 282, 293, 97 S.Ct. 2290, 2298, 53 L.Ed.2d 344 (1977). 20 In Rifai v. Parole Comm'n, 586 F.2d 695 (9th Cir.1978), we rejected essentially the same argument that Roth now urges. 9 There the prisoner claimed that the Commission's 1973 changes in its guidelines, together with Congress's 1976 amendments to the statute, fixed his parole date later than it would have been under the guidelines in effect when he committed his crimes. 21 The court held that the Commission's guidelines were merely procedural guideposts, without the characteristics of laws. Rifai, 586 F.2d at 698. Guidelines, reasoned the panel, cannot be considered laws even though the Commission applies them with regularity. If that were true, any policy or practice followed with some frequency would constitute a 'law' from which an agency could not vary. Id. 22 We have continued to adhere to Rifai. See Reynolds v. McCall, 701 F.2d 810, 814 n. 4 (9th Cir.1983); cf. Holguin v. Raines, 695 F.2d 372, 372 (9th Cir.1982) (denying habeas in ex post facto challenge to Arizona Department of Corrections change, to detriment of prisoner, in method of calculating parole eligibility); Ogg v. Klein, 572 F.2d 1379, 1383 (9th Cir.1978) (denying habeas in ex post facto challenge to Bureau of Prisons regulation, which restated prior law, adopted after youth had escaped from correctional facility). 23 We hold that the district court erred in finding that the Commission violated the ex post facto clause.
24 The district court apparently agreed with Roth's argument that the Commission abused its discretion. But the court's ruling is unclear. The court adopted the reasoning in the magistrate's report. That report relied principally on DiNapoli v. Parole Comm'n, 538 F.Supp. 658 (M.D.Pa.1982), a case very similar to the one before us. Citing DiNapoli, 10 the report said: 25 It appears that the Parole Commission is treating petitioner in the same manner the court held was improper in ... DiNapoli [.] This is not in accord with the standards imposed by the court decisions. It is not proper to apply the new regulations to petitioner in this action. The court in DiNapoli held that such application of the regulations was a violation of the ex post facto provision[ ] of the Constitution. 26 But in the next paragraph, the report added: 27 It appears that there has been an abuse of discretion in the instant case. The Parole Commission improperly aggregated petitioner's two sentences. The Parole Commission improperly used the expired sentence in determining petitioner's offense severity classification. 28 We read these statements as ruling that the Commission abused its discretion because it violated the ex post facto clause. But we have already held, supra p. 435, that the Commission did not violate the clause. Therefore, we cannot uphold this reading of the district court's abuse of discretion finding. 29 As we understand the matter, Roth's abuse of discretion argument is really a claim that the Government denied him due process of law in the way it applied its parole eligibility guidelines to him. He contends that the Commission used a method for determining his parole eligibility that effectively penalizing him twice for having committed the Chicago crime, even though he had already served full sentence for that crime. He appears to argue that Commission guidelines in effect when he committed both the Chicago and Denver crimes did not permit parole officials to do this. 30 We express no view on the merits of this argument. But we think the district court should take it up. Therefore, we remand for reconsideration and clarification as to this part of Roth's petition for habeas corpus.
31 In vacating the writ, we hesitate to require that Roth return to prison. At oral argument, the United States Attorney agreed to join Roth's request that, in the event we reversed the district court, the Parole Commission should reconsider Roth's eligibility for parole in light of the 9 months he has lived outside prison as a member of civilian society. Therefore, the district court, before taking up Roth's abuse of discretion argument, may wish to permit the Commission to reconsider Roth's parole eligibility and decide whether he would make better progress toward rehabilitation by remaining on parole. See, e.g., United States v. White, 540 F.2d 409, 412 (8th Cir.1976).