Opinion ID: 195585
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Prior State Convictions as Predicate Offenses.

Text: 45 Taking a slightly different tack, appellant asseverates that the enumeration of specific statutes within section 994(h) precludes incorporation of state court convictions as predicate offenses under the career offender provision; and that, therefore, the court below committed reversible error in counting his convictions for state drug-trafficking crimes. We do not agree. 46 The short of it is that this asseveration has been advanced--and rebuffed--in many other cases. See, e.g., Beasley, 12 F.3d at 284 (holding that to exclude state drug-trafficking convictions would thwart Congress's intent, do violence to the language of section 994(h), and create an unjustified anomaly); United States v. Rivera, 996 F.2d 993, 996 (9th Cir.1993) (holding the Sentencing Commission's inclusion of state convictions as predicate offenses to be both permissible and reasonable); United States v. Whyte, 892 F.2d 1170, 1174 (3d Cir.1989) (stating that, under section 994(h), predicate drug offenses need only involve conduct that could have been charged federally), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1070, 110 S.Ct. 1793, 108 L.Ed.2d 794 (1990); see also Dyer, 9 F.3d at 1 (explicitly endorsing Whyte rationale). 47 Displayed against the monochromatic backdrop of this massed authority, appellant's challenge fades. 6 48