Court Opinion

ID: 9462850
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:51:38.985123+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:48.927595
License: Public Domain

GEE, Circuit Judge
(specially concurring):
I concur in the result and in the general analysis of the majority opinion. I write separately only to emphasize the reluctance with which I reach this agreement and to express my sympathy with the government’s argument that our interpretation of the statute renders it unreasonable.
Although I can support no construction alternative to according 18 U.S.C. § 3575(a) its plain meaning, I regard the statute as more than merely anomalous. It is hopelessly quixotic and incoherent in terms of the policies which it ostensibly furthers. As the Justice Department’s observations quoted in the majority opinion indicate, a presiding judge is inevitably exposed to potentially prejudicial preliminary matters. Hearings on motions to suppress evidence are a routine and obvious example. In a case such as this one, in which the judge was not the trier of fact and was merely apprised of the circumstance that the government was seeking an enhanced sen*850tence rather than the contents of the notice, the potential for prejudice is miniscule, milder far than that threatened by matter which juries are routinely instructed to— and presumably do — disregard. Indeed, the remedy applied by the majority, one apparently indicated by 18 U.S.C. § 3576, belies the notion that Congress was seriously concerned about such prejudice; although the evil is described as prejudice against the defendant before the determination of guilt or innocence, the remedy leaves the conviction standing and merely prevents the government from using the notice for its proper purpose.
We are bound, however, to enforce the statute as Congress wrote it regardless of its incoherence on the policy level. In response to the government’s argument that this interpretation of the prohibition against notifying the presiding judge renders implementation of the statutory scheme unreasonably difficult in view of the pretrial filing requirement, I note that this case does not present the issue of whether substantial compliance with the latter requirement is sufficient. Although the particular procedural defect in this case requires that the enhanced sentences be vacated, some deviations from the prescribed scheme may well be permissible or, at worst, merely harmless error.