Court Opinion

ID: 9490750
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:53:31.662209+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:17.757199
License: Public Domain

DIANE P. WOOD, Circuit Judge, joined by ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the result of the Circuit Rule 40(e) poll.
Although I agree that the court does not need to rehear this case en banc, I wish to make clear why I have come to that conclusion. I consider the panel’s opinion potentially to represent a significant expansion of the principle announced in California Department of Corrections v. Morales, 514 U.S. 499, 115 S.Ct. 1597, 131 L.Ed.2d 588 (1995), which held that only legislative changes of “sufficient moment” will implicate the Ex Post Facto clause. In Morales, the Court found that matters like changes in the membership of the Board of Prison Terms, restrictions on law library hours, rights of allocution, and page limits on objections to presentence reports did not raise Ex Post Facto concerns. Lindsey v. Washington, 301 U.S. 397, 57 S.Ct. 797, 81 L.Ed. 1182 (1937), on the other hand, held that the Ex Post Facto clause was violated by a legislative change that eliminated the possibility of a more lenient sentence. Miller v. Florida, 482 U.S. 423, 107 S.Ct. 2446, 96 L.Ed.2d 351 (1987), and Weaver v. Graham, 450 U.S. 24, 101 S.Ct. 960, 67 L.Ed.2d 17 (1981), similarly found violations of the clause where punishment was enhanced by alterations of the formula used to calculate the applicable sentencing range. In my view, because 18 U.S.C. § 3583(h) at least potentially affects the length of time an individual is either in prison or under supervised release, the question before us is closer to the Lindsey end of this spectrum than to the page limits end. Nevertheless, at least -for purposes of a facial challenge like the one Withers brings, I agree that the risks described in United States v. Beals, 87 F.3d 854, 858 (7th Cir.1996), are too remote to raise a constitutional problem. On the other hand, if we were to see a case in which the hypothetical outlined in Beals came to life, I see nothing in either Morales or the opinion in this case that would preclude us from finding an Ex Post Facto violation as applied. I therefore agree that Beals must be overruled to the extent that it holds that 18 U.S.C. § 3583(h) *1173violates the Ex Post Facto clause in all circumstances.