In United States v. Cohen, No. 21-10741 (Wilson, Branch, Tjoflat) (July 6, 2022), the Court affirmed the denial of a motion to suppress. The Court held that Cohen had Fourth Amendment to standing to challenge the search of the rental car he was driving, even though he was not an authorized driver of the rental car and had a suspended license.  In Byrd, the Supreme Court held that standing is not defeated merely because the driver was not listed on the rental agreement.  The Eleventh Circuit rejected the reasoning of the Second Circuit, and agreed with the Eighth Circuit, that being an unlicensed driver does not defeat a reasonable expectation of privacy because it is not comparable to wrongful presence in the car.  And the Court emphasized that the Cohen did not interfere with the authorized renter’s valid possessory interest in the car because had the renter’s permission to use the car.  However, the Court ultimately held that the inventory search of the car complied with the city’s impoundment procedures, and the Court therefore upheld the denial of the motion to suppress. https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202110741.pdf http://defensenewsletter.blogspot.com/

In Riolo v. United States, No. 20-12206 (June 29, 2022) (Jordan, Jill Pryor, Marcus), the Court affirmed the denial of Mr. Riolo's 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion to vacate his 293-month prison sentence and convictions.     Mr. Riolo argued that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance of counsel because she told him that if he pleaded guilty to five counts of mail fraud, he would serve no more than 10 years in prison because of a deal she had worked out with the government.  His trial counsel also advised him that his sentencing range under the Guidelines was 97-121 months' imprisonment because he had an offense level of 30 and a criminal history category of I.  He argued that he pleaded guilty based upon those representations when he otherwise would have proceeded to trial.   After an evidentiary hearing, the district court found that the trial counsel never represented to Mr. Riolo that she had a deal with the government about his guideline range and that she had properly advised him that the district court would ultimately determine his guideline range for itself.  On appeal, Mr. Riolo argued that the district court's factual findings were clearly erroneous, and that, even putting aside the disputed [...]

In United States v. Jackson, No. 21-13963 (June 10, 2022) (Rosenbaum, Jill Pryor, Ed Carnes), the Court vacated Mr. Jackson's ACCA-enhanced sentence and remanded for resentencing without the ACCA sentence enhancement. In this appeal, the Court considered which version of the Controlled Substance Act Schedules incorporated into ACCA’s definition of “serious drug offense” applies when a defendant is convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm: the version in effect at the time of the defendant’s federal firearm-possession violation (for which he is being sentenced), or the ones in effect when he was convicted of his predicate state crimes that we are evaluating to see whether they satisfy ACCA’s definition of “serious drug offense.” The Court held that due-process fair-notice considerations require the application of the version of the Controlled Substance Act Schedules in place when the defendant committed the federal firearm-possession offense for which he is being sentenced. With that in mind, the Court found that Mr. Jackson's 1998 and 2004 cocaine-related convictions under Fla. Stat. § 893.13 did not qualify as "serious drug offense[s]" because they encompassed the sale of, or possession with intent to distribute, ioflupane, which was not a "controlled substance" for purposes of the "serious drug [...]

In United States v. Stines, No. 20-11035 (May 31, 2022) (Wilson, Luck, Lagoa), the Court affirmed the defendant’s sentence for unlawfully exporting weapons. Ordinarily, under U.S.S.G. 2M5.2(a), the unlawful exportation of weapons carries a base offense level of 26, but there is an exception carrying a base offense level of 14 where the offense involved only non-fully automatic small arms, and the number of weapons did not exceed two.  In this case, the defendant exported 23 weapons parts that could be converted into only two fully assembled weapons.  The Court agreed that the exception could apply to weapons parts, not just fully assembled weapons.  However, the Court held that the exception did not apply in this case because the number of parts could service more than two weapons.  Although this reading would mean that exporting three triggers alone would produce a higher base offense level than exporting two fully assembled firearms, that did not create an absurd result.  The Court also held that it lacked jurisdiction to consider the district court’s refusal to grant a downward departure under the Guidelines. Judge Luck concurred, opining that the exception did not apply to gun parts because those were not “small arms.”  Judge [...]

In United States v. Gardner, No. 20-13645 (May 27, 2022) (Newsom, Tjoflat, Hull), the Court affirmed the defendant’s ACCA sentence. The district court applied the ACCA based prior Alabama drug convictions.  The defendant argued that his convictions did not qualify as “serious drug offenses” because they did not have a “maximum term of imprisonment” of ten years or more.  The Court held that the “maximum term of imprisonment” was determined by the statutory maximum under state law.  The Court rejected the defendant’s argument that it was instead determined by the high-end of the state’s presumptive guideline range. https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202013645.pdf http://defensenewsletter.blogspot.com/

In United States v. Jimenez-Shilon, No. 20-13139 (May 23, 2022) (Newsom, Branch, Brasher), the Court held that 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(5)(A)—which prohibits illegal aliens from possessing firearms—does not violate the Second Amendment. The Court held that illegal aliens do not have Second Amendment rights.  The Court assumed, for the sake of argument, that the defendant here was among the “people” referenced in the Constitution.  Nonetheless, after conducting an extensive historical analysis, the Court concluded that illegal aliens were not afforded the right to bear arms in England or colonial America.  In so concluding, the Court joined seven circuits to address the issue, which all reached the same conclusion.  Accordingly, the Court held that 922(g)(5)(A) does not violate the Second Amendment. Judge Newsom authored a separate 10-page concurrence about his views more generally on how to conduct a Second Amendment analysis in future cases. https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202013139.pdf http://defensenewsletter.blogspot.com/