Court Opinion

ID: 9558453
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:09:58.50824+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:09:18.862092
License: Public Domain

SILER, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the majority decision affirming the district court’s judgment. However, I write separately to say that it is not necessary to find a nexus requirement embedded in USSG § 3C1.2. Thus, I would leave to another day the resolution of that decision.
Like the decision in United States v. Duran, 37 F.3d 557, 559-60 (9th Cir.1994), I would assume without deciding that § 3C1.2 had a nexus requirement. Obviously, unlike Duran, the Government in the case at bar did not agree with the idea that such a requirement could exist. Nevertheless, I think that the nexus issue could be better resolved in a case in which a district court enhanced a sentence based upon conduct which did not have a nexus between the offense of conviction and the reckless endangerment during flight. Therefore, I would find that regardless of whether there is a nexus requirement under the Guidelines, the district court properly enhanced the sentence for reckless endangerment.