We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

SUPREME COURT HAS CLASS, BUT NO DIMAYA

The Supreme Court handed down four opinions this morning, but the long-awaited Sessions v. Dimaya decision, which will address the broader application of the 2015 Johnson vagueness holding on “crime of violence” was not among them.

Today, SCOTUS held in Class v. United States that pleading guilty to a federal crime does not prevent a defendant from challenging the constitutionality of the statute on appeal. A federal grand jury indicted petitioner, Rodney Class, for possessing guns in his locked jeep on the grounds of the United States Capitol, a violation of 40 USC 5104(e)(1). He signed a plea agreement that set forth several categories of rights that he agreed to waive, but said nothing about his right to challenge the constitutionality of the statute on direct appeal. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held Class could not appeal the statute’s constitutionality under the 2nd Amendment, because by pleading guilty, he had waived all constitutional claims.

The Supreme Court reversed, holding in a 6-3 opinion that a guilty plea, by itself, does not bar a federal criminal defendant from challenging the constitutionality of his statute of conviction on direct appeal. The Court said that “where the claim implicates ‘the very power of the State’ to prosecute the defendant, a guilty plea cannot by itself bar it.” Here, Class neither expressly nor implicitly waived his constitutional claims by pleading guilty. A guilty plea, the Court said, does not bar a direct appeal in these circumstances.

So when will we see Sessions v. Dimaya? No one outside of the Justices themselves know the answer. If the Court has any opinions to issue next week, those will happen on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Class v. United States, Case No. 16-424 (Supreme Court, Feb. 21, 2018)

– Thomas L. Root