Court Opinion

ID: 9498256
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:12:25.584746+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:43.050509
License: Public Domain

DAVID A. NELSON, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
No fewer than eight of our sister circuits have addressed the precise question presented in the case at bar. All eight have concluded that the term “a conviction for an aggravated felony,” as used in U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2, includes a felony conviction in a state court for a drug offense that would be punishable only as a misdemeanor under the relevant federal statute. See United States v. Wilson, 316 F.3d 506, 512-13 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 538 U.S. 1025, 123 S.Ct. 1959, 155 L.Ed.2d 871 (2003); United States v. Ibarra-Galindo, 206 F.3d 1337, 1339-41 (9th Cir.2000), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 1102, 121 S.Ct. 837, 148 L.Ed.2d 718 (2001); United States v. Pornes-Garcia, 171 F.3d 142, 145-48 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 880, 120 S.Ct. 191, 145 L.Ed.2d 161 (1999); United States v. Simon, 168 F.3d 1271, 1272 (11th Cir.), cert. denied 528 U.S. 844, 120 S.Ct. 114, 145 L.Ed.2d 97 (1999); United States v. Hinojosa-Lopez, 130 F.3d 691, 693-94 (5th Cir.1997); United States v. Briones-Mata, 116 F.3d 308, 309-10 (8th Cir.1997); United States v. Cabrera-Sosa, 81 F.3d 998, 999-1000 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 885, 117 S.Ct. 218, 136 L.Ed.2d 151 (1996); United States v. Restrepo-Aguilar, 74 F.3d 361, 363-66 (1st Cir.1996).
I would be cautious about rocking a boat as stable as this one seems to be. I think the stability is more apparent than real, however, given that (1) the proper interpretation of “a conviction for an aggravated felony” depends on what Congress said in 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(2), a code section that speaks of “any felony punishable under the Controlled Substances Act [etc.],” and (2) two of the eight circuits mentioned above have held in immigration cases that the language in § 924(c)(2) about “any felony punishable under the Controlled Substances Act” means, for immigration law purposes, punishable under the Controlled Substances Act as a felony — which is not the meaning those circuits assign to the same language in the same statute for sentencing law purposes. Compare Aguirre v. INS, 79 F.3d 315, 317-18 (2d Cir.1996), with Pornes-Garcia, and Cazarez-Gutierrez v. Ashcroft, 382 F.3d 905, 919 (9th Cir.2004), with Ibarra-Galindo. I agree with my colleagues on the panel that the Second and Ninth Circuits have some explaining to do in this regard. (There is no corresponding tension in the Third Circuit caselaw, since Gerbier v. Holmes, 280 F.3d 297 (3rd Cir.2002) — an immigration case reaching the same result as that reached in Aguirre and Cazarez-Gutier-*702rez — stands alone in the Third Circuit; there is no Third Circuit sentencing case corresponding to the eight cases cited in the opening paragraph of this concurrence.)
I also agree with my colleagues’ conclusion that the phrase “a conviction for an aggravated felony,” as used in U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2, should not be read as including a state court felony conviction for a drug offense that would be punishable only as a misdemeanor under federal law. My agreement with this conclusion is not significantly influenced, however, by the 1990 committee report quoted in the court’s opinion. As I read it, the committee report does not speak to the question whether a state drug felony must be analogous to a federal drug felony — as opposed to a lesser federal offense — in order to be classified as a “drug trafficking crime” and thus as an “aggravated felony.”
The factor that weighs most heavily in my mind is not legislative history, but the rule of lenity. At the very least, it seems to me, the critical language in 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(2) — “any felony punishable under the Controlled Substances Act” — could reasonably be construed as meaning either “any offense punishable as a felony under the Controlled Substances Act” or “any offense that constitutes a felony under state or federal law and is punishable under the Controlled Substances Act.” There being two arguably permissible constructions of this statutory language, the rule of lenity requires us to adopt the construction that is more favorable to the defendant. See United States v. Wagner, 382 F.3d 598, 610 (6th Cir.2004). The district court having adopted the less favorable construction, I concur in my colleagues’ judgment that the challenged sentence must be vacated and the case remanded for resen-tencing under a proper construction of the (now advisory) federal sentencing guidelines.