SCOTUS grants cert on yet another set of ACCA cases, this time to explore when burglary qualifies as "burglary"
Though I am always excited when the Supreme Court takes up sentencing issues, I must admit growing somewhat annoyed that issues related to the application of the Armed Career Criminal Act continued to be the focal point of so much SCOTUS activity. That patterns continues today via this new SCOTUS order list in which cert was granted in these two cases (which were consolidated for one hour of argument):
United States v. Stitt, 17-765 (from the Sixth Circuit)
Issue: Whether burglary of a nonpermanent or mobile structure that is adapted or used for overnight accommodation can qualify as “burglary” under the Armed Career Criminal Act of 1984, 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii).
United States v. Sims, 17-766 (from the Eighth Circuit)
Issue: Whether burglary of a nonpermanent or mobile structure that is adapted or used for overnight accommodation can qualify as “burglary” under the Armed Career Criminal Act of 1984, 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii).
Because the government was seeking cert on these cases after losing in big Circuit rulings and because there is a split in the circuits, I am not at all surprised by these grants. But I remain troubled that so many other issues that are so very consequential to so many more cases — e.g., the functioning of reasonableness review or the proper application of Graham and Miller — have been unable to get the Justices' attention while nearly a dozen ACCA cases have been taken up by SCOUS in the last decade.
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