Court Opinion

ID: 9495553
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:05:30.756021+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:04.864940
License: Public Domain

BERZON, Circuit Judge,
Dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. There is no case in this court holding that a crime for which the maximum sentence is one year, rather than more than a year, can be an aggravated felony under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43), and I do not believe that we should so hold now.
United States v. Corona-Sanchez, 291 F.3d 1201, 1210 n. 10. (9th Cir.2002) expressly left the question open.1 The other *1172ease relied upon by the majority, United States v. Yanez-Saucedo, 295 F.3d 991, 996 n. 4 (9th Cir.2002), merely noted that a crime for which the defendant was sentenced to nine months in prison could not be an aggravated felony; Yanez-Saucedo did not need to address whether a crime with a maximum sentence of exactly one year could qualify as an aggravated felony and did not do so. Further, although both United States v. Machiche-Duarte, 286 F.3d 1153 (9th Cir.2002), and Randhawa v. Ashcroft, 298 F.3d 1148 (9th Cir.2002) upheld an aggravated felony enhancement based on crimes in which the sentence actually imposed equaled exactly one year, in neither case did the alien challenge the finding of an aggravated felony based on the length of the maximum sentence attached to the crime.
I do not believe that a crime for which the maximum sentence is one year, rather than more than a year, can be an aggravated felony, essentially for the reasons eloquently stated in Judge Straub’s dissent in United States v. Pacheco, 225 F.3d 148, 155 (2d Cir.2000). Absent some absolutely clear indication that Congress is using a word with a meaning it does not ordinarily have in the English language or in legal discourse, we should assume the legislators are not playing Humpty Dumpty with the dictionary. Instead, the much more sensible conclusion is that when Congress says “X” term means Y and Z crimes (or things or actions), what it intends to convey is that among the crimes (or things or actions) that could come within an ordinary meaning of X term, the ones we mean to include are Y and Z. Judge Straub put the same point this way:
“[I]t is quite clear that ‘aggravated felony’ defines a subset of the broader category ‘felony.’ Common sense and standard English grammar dictate that when an adjective — such as ‘aggravated ’ — modifies a noun — such as ‘felony’— the combination of the terms delineates a subset of the noun. One would never suggest, for example, that by adding the adjective ‘blue’ to the noun ‘ear,’ one could be attempting to define items that are not, in the first instance, cars.”
Pacheco, 225 F.3d at 157.
Using that approach, the long list of crimes contained in 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43) must be felonies — that is crimes as to which the maximum sentence is more than one year — before they can be aggravated felonies. See United States v. Robles-Rodriguez, 281 F.3d 900, 904 (9th Cir.2002) (noting Congress’s “long-standing practice of equating the term ‘felony’ with offenses punishable by more than one year’s imprisonment”); accord United States v. Arellno-Torres, 303 F.3d 1173, 1178 (9th Cir.2002). Thus, 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(F) covers crimes as to which the maximum sentence is more than a year and the actual term of imprisonment to which the individual in question was sentenced is at least a year. As Judge Straub noted, “no logical problem results from interpreting ‘crime of violence’ and ‘theft offense’ only to include crimes that already are felonies.... [S]ome one-year sentences would still be aggravated felonies— those imposed for felonies, that is, for crimes with maximum terms of more than one year.” Pacheco, 225 F.3d at 159 (Straub, Circuit Judge, dissenting) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).
Even if one thought the proposition that an “aggravated felony” must first be a felony less than dispositive, the oddity of reading a statute as redefining a word with long-established usage at least suggests that the statute’s meaning is not clear. It *1173is therefore appropriate to turn to the legislative history of the statute. Ass’n to Protect Hammersly, Eld & Totten Inlets v. Taylor Resources, Inc., 299 F.3d 1007, 1016 (9th Cir.2002). That history supports my reading of the statute. See H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 104-828, at 223 (1996) (stating that the amendment lowers “the imprisonment threshold for crimes of theft, violence, racketeering, and document fraud from five years to one year; ... ”); S. Rep. No. 104-249, at 17 (1996) (emphasis added) (“Because of the expanded definition of ‘aggravated felony’ provided by sec. 161 of the bill, aliens who have been convicted of most felonies, if sentenced to at least one year in prison, will be ineligible” for relief barred by conviction of an aggravated felony.) As these comments indicate, Congress meant to change from five years to one year the sentence of imprisonment which will trigger an aggravated felony finding. There is no indication that Congress intended to change the usual definition of the term “felony” by including crimes for which the maximum possible prison term is one year, rather than more than one year.
This understanding is all the more compelling because the actual language of § 1101(a)(43)(F) (and also 1101(a)(48)(G)) is missing a key word and makes no literal sense as enacted. See United States v. Hernandez-Castellanos, 287 F.3d 876, 878 n. 2 (9th Cir.2002). As a literal reading of § 1101(a)(43)(F) is therefore not a possibility, we should not, in constructing a less-than-literal interpretation, take the view that Congress meant to supplant the meaning of the term “felony” taught to generations of law students.
I therefore dissent.

. I note that the majority opinion confuses the question whether the label of a crime as a "misdemeanor” or "felony” in state law governs—it does not, as we held in United States v. Corona-Sanchez, 291 F.3d 1201, 1210 (9th Cir.2002)—with the question whether the established meaning of the terms used in the federal statute should govern the interpretation of that statute.