Opinion ID: 218871
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: DUI Offenses

Text: Application Note 5 in the Commentary to the Guidelines provides that ordinary drinking and driving convictions are counted: Sentences for Driving While Intoxicated or Under the Influence. Convictions for driving while intoxicated or under the influence (and similar offenses by whatever name they are known) are counted. Such offenses are not minor traffic infractions within the meaning of § 4A1.2(c). U.S.S.G. § 4A1.2 cmt. n.5. The government argues under Note 5 that Landa's violation of § 23140(a) must be counted because it is a driving-under-the-influence (DUI) offense within the meaning of the Note. The majority suggests its agreement with the government's argument. See Maj. op. at 835. The government's argument proves too much. It is uncontested that if a violation of § 23140(a) is committed by someone under 18, the violation is a true juvenile status offense. If such a violation of § 23140(a) were a DUI under Application Note 5, there would be a conflict between the Guidelines and the Commentary because juvenile status offenses are explicitly excluded by the text of § 4A1.2(c)(2) while DUI offenses are counted under Note 5. When the text of the Guidelines and a portion of the Commentary conflict, the text controls. Stinson v. United States, 508 U.S. 36, 45, 113 S.Ct. 1913, 123 L.Ed.2d 598 (1993). Therefore, the textual command that juvenile status offenses are never counted trumps any potentially conflicting provision in the Commentary. Excluding such a violation of § 23140(a) from the scope of Note 5 is also a logical reading of the commentary. Note 5 makes clear that DUIs are not minor traffic infractions and for that reason should be counted. By contrast, the rationale for not counting juvenile status offenses is that they are minor infractions. If the drafters had intended to include underage drinking-and-driving within its definition of DUI, they would likely have given us additional language explicitly so providing. I do not conclude that DUIs based on a blood alcohol content of .08% or over which are violations of California Vehicle Code § 23152 rather than § 23140(a)are excluded if committed by a juvenile. A violation of § 23152 is not a juvenile status offense. Rather, it is adult felony, even if committed by someone under 18, because it depends entirely on blood alcohol content; the age of the offender is irrelevant. A true juvenile status offensea violation of § 23140(a) committed by someone under 18is excluded from the scope of § 4A1.2(c)(2). The Guideline text does not distinguish between true juvenile status offenses and similar to offenses. The text states only that prior offenses and offenses similar to them ... are never counted. That is, § 4A1.2(c)(2) prescribes the same treatment for juvenile status and for offenses similar to them. Since the true juvenile status offense is always excluded from criminal history category computation, similar to offenses must be excluded as well.