Opinion ID: 4404198
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Defining “Controlled Substance Offense”

Text: The Government urges us to find that the commentary at issue here—Application Note 1 to § 4B1.2, which adds attempt crimes to the list of controlled substance offenses under § 4B1.2(b)—is not a “plainly erroneous” interpretation of the corresponding guideline. 3 But the Government sidesteps a threshold question: is this really an “interpretation” at all? The guideline expressly names the crimes that qualify as controlled substance offenses under § 2K2.1(a)(4); none are attempt crimes. And the Commission knows how to include attempt crimes when it wants to—in subsection (a) of the same guideline, for example, the Commission defines “crime of violence” as including offenses that have “as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another.” USSG § 4B1.2(a) (emphasis added). 3The Government argues in the alternative that the real commentary at issue is Application Note 1 to § 2K2.1, which cross-references the definition of “controlled substance offense” in Application Note 1 to § 4B1.2. The Government never made that argument in the district court or before the initial panel on appeal and arguably has forfeited its right to do so now. At any rate, it makes no difference whether we begin with § 2K2.1 to determine the meaning of “controlled substance offense.” The commentary to § 2K2.1 directs us to apply “the meaning given that term in § 4B1.2(b) and Application Note 1 of the Commentary to § 4B1.2.” If anything, the Government’s proposed definition—which would require us to defer to commentary on other commentary—would carry an even more tenuous connection to the guideline’s text. No. 17-5772 United States v. Havis Page 6 To make attempt crimes a part of § 4B1.2(b), the Commission did not interpret a term in the guideline itself—no term in § 4B1.2(b) would bear that construction.4 Rather, the Commission used Application Note 1 to add an offense not listed in the guideline. But application notes are to be “interpretations of, not additions to, the Guidelines themselves.” Rollins, 836 F.3d at 742. If that were not so, the institutional constraints that make the Guidelines constitutional in the first place—congressional review and notice and comment— would lose their meaning. See Winstead, 890 F.3d at 1092 (“If the Commission wishes to expand the definition of ‘controlled substance offenses’ to include attempts, it may seek to amend the language of the guidelines by submitting the change for congressional review.”). The Commission’s use of commentary to add attempt crimes to the definition of “controlled substance offense” deserves no deference. The text of § 4B1.2(b) controls, and it makes clear that attempt crimes do not qualify as controlled substance offenses.