Court Opinion

ID: 9497205
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:45:49.776554+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:03.663781
License: Public Domain

HEANEY, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I believe the Sentencing Commission exceeded its authority by applying USSG § 3B1.4 to defendants less than twenty-*789one years of age because Congress directed that the enhancement should apply only to those twenty-one and over. As recognized by the Seventh Circuit, Congress considered and rejected a directive that would apply the enhancement to all defendants eighteen and over, instead settling on one that would apply only to those twenty-one and over. See United States v. Ramsey, 237 F.3d 853, 857-58 (7th Cir. 2001) (reviewing the legislative history of relevant portions of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994). I recognize, however, that our court has recently decided that the Commission was within its authority to promulgate the enhancement as it is. See United States v. Wingate, 369 F.3d 1028 (8th Cir. 2004) (rejecting the argument of the eighteen year old defendant that USSG § 3B1.4 was inapplicable to him because he was under twenty-one). Unless this decision is reconsidered by the panel or our court en banc, we are bound by it. United States v. Hutman, 339 F.3d 773, 777 (8th Cir.2003) (recognizing one panel of the circuit may not overrule another absent a change in the law). I thus reluctantly concur.