Descamps v. United States

Descamps v. United States

Opinion analysis: Clarity on “clear evidence” of drug pre-emption? – Elizabeth McCuskey

Opinion analysis: Court rejects issue preclusion in affirming Crow Tribe’s treaty hunting right – Gregory Ablavsky

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Conference of May 16, 2019

Docket No.	Op. Below	Argument	Opinion	Vote	Author	Term
11-9540	9th Cir.	Jan 7, 2013 Tr.Aud.	Jun 20, 2013	8-1	Kagan	OT 2012

Disclosure: Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys work for or contribute to this blog in various capacities, is among the counsel to the NACDL as amicus curiae in this case.

Holding: Sentencing courts may not apply the modified categorical approach to a federal defendant when the crime of which the defendant was previously convicted has a single, indivisible set of elements.

Judgment: Reversed, 8-1, in an opinion by Justice Kagan on June 20, 2013. Justice Thomas filed an opinion concurring in the judgment. Justice Alito filed a dissenting opinion.

Opinion analysis: When is a burglary not a burglary? (Daniel Richman)
Details: Descamps v. United States (Tejinder Singh)
Argument recap: Court struggles with classifying prior burglary convictions across states and courtrooms (Daniel Richman)
Argument preview: When is a burglary a “burglary”? (Daniel Richman)
Court grants two more cases (Lyle Denniston)

Date	Proceedings and Orders (key to color coding)
Mar 19 2012	Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due April 27, 2012)
Apr 18 2012	Order extending time to file response to petition to and including May 29, 2012.
May 21 2012	Order further extending time to file response to petition to and including June 28, 2012.
Jun 28 2012	Brief of respondent United States in opposition filed.
Jul 12 2012	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of September 24, 2012.
Jul 17 2012	Supplemental brief of petitioner Matthew Robert Descamps filed. (Distributed)
Aug 31 2012	Motion to proceed in forma pauperis is granted. The petition for a writ of certiorari is GRANTED limited to Question 1 presented by the petition.
Sep 11 2012	Motion to appoint counsel filed by petitioner Matthew Robert Descamps.
Oct 3 2012	Motion DISTRIBUTED for Conference of October 26, 2012.
Oct 5 2012	The time to file the joint appendix and petitioner's brief on the merits is extended to and including October 24, 2012.
Oct 5 2012	The time to file respondent's brief on the merits is extended to and including December 3, 2012.
Oct 18 2012	Motion to file volume II of the joint appendix under seal filed by petitioner Matthew Robert Descamps.
Oct 24 2012	Joint appendix filed. (Volume 1 of 2) (Statement of costs filed)
Oct 24 2012	Brief of petitioner Matthew Robert Descamps filed.
Oct 29 2012	Motion to appoint counsel filed by petitioner GRANTED. Dan B. Johnson, Esquire, of Spokane, Washington, is appointed to serve as counsel for the petitioner.
Oct 29 2012	Motion DISTRIBUTED for Conference of November 20, 2012.
Oct 31 2012	SET FOR ARGUMENT ON Monday, January 7, 2013.
Oct 31 2012	Brief amici curiae of National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, et al. filed.
Nov 16 2012	CIRCULATED.
Nov 26 2012	Motion to file volume II of the joint appendix under seal GRANTED.
Dec 3 2012	Brief of respondent United States filed. (Distributed)
Dec 5 2012	Record recieved from U.S.C.A. for 9th Circuit. (1 box).
Dec 5 2012	Record from U.S.D.C. for Eastern District of Washingon is electronic. There is 1 sealed envelope received from U.S.C.A. for 9th Circuit) that is a part of U.S.D.C. record.
Dec 27 2012	Reply of petitioner Matthew Robert Descamps filed. (Distributed)
Jan 7 2013	Argued. For petitioner: Dan B. Johnson, Spokane, Wash. (Appointed by this Court.) For respondent: Benjamin J. Horwich, Assistant to the Solicitor General, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C.
Jun 20 2013	Judgment REVERSED. Kagan, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Roberts, C. J., and Scalia, Kenendy, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Sotomayor, JJ., joined. Kennedy, J., filed a concurring opinion. Thomas, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment. Alito, J., filed a dissenting opinion.
Jul 3 2013	Petition for Rehearing filed.
Aug 8 2013	DISTRIBUTED.
Aug 30 2013	Rehearing DENIED.
Aug 30 2013	JUDGMENT ISSUED.
Sep 4 2013	Record returned to U.S.C.A. for 9th Circuit.

Featured Posts

Opinion analysis: Clarity on “clear evidence” of drug pre-emption? – Elizabeth McCuskey

Opinion analysis: Court rejects issue preclusion in affirming Crow Tribe’s treaty hunting right – Gregory Ablavsky

Tom Goldstein and David Savage talk through abortion, precedent and the Supreme Court – SCOTUStalk
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This Week at the Court
The Supreme Court released orders from the May 16 conference on Monday; the justices granted Ritzen Group Inc. v. Jackson Masonry, LLC.
On Monday, the justices released their opinions in Mission Product Holdings Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC, Herrera v. Wyoming and Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. v. Albrecht.
On Thursday, the justices meet for their May 23 conference.
Major Cases
- Department of Commerce v. New York
  (1) Whether the district court erred in enjoining the secretary of the Department of Commerce from reinstating a question about citizenship to the 2020 decennial census on the ground that the secretary’s decision violated the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 701 et seq; (2) whether, in an action seeking to set aside agency action under the APA, a district court may order discovery outside the administrative record to probe the mental processes of the agency decisionmaker -- including by compelling the testimony of high-ranking executive branch officials -- without a strong showing that the decisionmaker disbelieved the objective reasons in the administrative record, irreversibly prejudged the issue, or acted on a legally forbidden basis; and (3) whether the secretary’s decision to add a citizenship question to the decennial census violated the enumeration clause of the U.S. Constitution.
- Lamone v. Benisek
  In case in which the plaintiffs allege that a Maryland congressional district was gerrymandered to retaliate against them for their political views: (1) whether the various legal claims articulated by the three-judge district court are unmanageable; (2) whether the three-judge district court erred when, in granting plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, it resolved disputes of material fact as to multiple elements of plaintiffs’ claims, failed to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, and treated as “undisputed” evidence that is the subject of still-unresolved hearsay and other evidentiary objections; and (3) whether the three-judge district court abused its discretion in entering an injunction despite the plaintiffs’ years-long delay in seeking injunctive relief, rendering the remedy applicable to at most one election before the next decennial census necessitates another redistricting.
- Kisor v. Wilkie
  Whether the Supreme Court should overrule Auer v. Robbins and Bowles v. Seminole Rock & Sand Co., which direct courts to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of its own ambiguous regulation.
- Rucho v. Common Cause
  (1) Whether plaintiffs have standing to press their partisan gerrymandering claims; (2) whether plaintiffs’ partisan gerrymandering claims are justiciable; and (3) whether North Carolina’s 2016 congressional map is, in fact, an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.
- The American Legion v. American Humanist Association
  (1) Whether a 93-year-old memorial to the fallen of World War I is unconstitutional merely because it is shaped like a cross; (2) whether the constitutionality of a passive display incorporating religious symbolism should be assessed under the tests articulated in Lemon v. Kurtzman, Van Orden v. Perry, Town of Greece v. Galloway or some other test; and (3) whether, if the test from Lemon v. Kurtzman applies, the expenditure of funds for the routine upkeep and maintenance of a cross-shaped war memorial, without more, amounts to an excessive entanglement with religion in violation of the First Amendment.
- Gamble v. United States
  Whether the Supreme Court should overrule the “separate sovereigns” exception to the double jeopardy clause.
see all this term’s cases »
Recent Decisions
- Herrera v. Wyoming Wyoming’s statehood did not abrogate the Crow Tribe’s 1868 federal treaty right to hunt on the “unoccupied lands of the United States”; the lands of the Bighorn National Forest did not become categorically “occupied” when the forest was created.
- Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. v. Albrecht “Clear evidence” that the Food and Drug Administration would not have approved a change to a drug’s label – thus pre-empting a state-law failure-to-warn claim – is evidence showing that the drug manufacturer fully informed the FDA of the justifications for the warning required by state law and that the FDA, in turn, informed the drug manufacturer that the FDA would not approve a change to the drug’s label to include that warning; the question of agency disapproval is primarily one of law for a judge to decide.
- Mission Product Holdings Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC A bankruptcy debtor’s rejection of an executory contract under 11 U.S.C. §365 has the same effect as a breach of that contract outside bankruptcy; such an act thus cannot rescind rights that the contract previously granted.
see all this term’s cases »
Current Relists
- al-Alwi v. Trump (1) Whether the government’s statutory authority to detain Moath Hamza Ahmed al-Alwi has unraveled; (2) whether, alternatively, the government’s statutory authority to detain al-Alwi has expired because the conflict in which he was captured has ended; and (3) whether the Authorization for Use of Military Force authorizes, and the Constitution permits, detention of an individual who was not “engaged in an armed conflict against the United States” in Afghanistan prior to his capture.
- Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky Inc. (1) Whether a state may require health-care facilities to dispose of fetal remains in the same manner as other human remains, i.e., by burial or cremation; and (2) whether a state may prohibit abortions motivated solely by the race, sex or disability of the fetus and require abortion doctors to inform patients of the prohibition.
- Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky Inc. Whether a state, consistent with the 14th Amendment, may require an ultrasound as part of informed consent at least 18 hours before an abortion.
More Petitions »
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Statistical Snapshot

Cases argued 70

Cases decided 32

Summary reversals 4

Merits cases granted to date 73

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Justice Thomas at Pepperdine Law School

On March 30, Justice Clarence Thomas spoke with former clerk Brittney Lane Kubisch and Pepperdine University President-elect James Gash at Pepperdine University School of Law. Thomas told the audience that he had no plans to retire from the Supreme Court.

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Awarded the Peabody Award for excellence in electronic media.
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Awarded the Sigma Delta Chi deadline reporting award for online coverage of the Affordable Care Act decision.
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Awarded the National Press Club's Breaking News Award for coverage of the Affordable Care Act decision.
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Awarded the Silver Gavel Award by the American Bar Association for fostering the American public’s understanding of the law and the legal system.
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Awarded the American Gavel Award for Distinguished Reporting About the Judiciary to recognize the highest standards of reporting about courts and the justice system.
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Awarded the Webby Award for excellence on the internet.

Cases argued	70
Cases decided	32
Summary reversals	4
Merits cases granted to date	73

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13
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16
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20
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23
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