Some first-cut musings on US v. Wooden, the latest SCOTUS effort to make ACCA less wacky

The US Supreme Court started the past work week by handing down one opinion, a sentencing win for a federal criminal defendant in US v. Wooden, No. 20-5279 (S. Ct. March 7, 2022) (available here).  Though all nine Justices voted in favor of the defendant, there were five opinions (with Justice Kagan writing for the Court, and four concurrences).  I could rattle off a few dozen thoughts about all the opinions, but I will close out the week with just these five musings, presented roughly from the general to the specific:

1.  Sentencing at SCOTUS: By various metrics the current Supreme Court is extremely conservative, and yet every single Justice voted in favor of William Wooden on a statutory issue after a majority of circuit courts had sided with the government.  In the Blakely, Booker, Roper, Gall, Kimbrough, Graham era, I had gotten in the habit of calling SCOTUS the most pro-defendant appellate court in the nation on sentencing issues.  I no longer think that is an accurate description, but Wooden is still a very important reminder that certain sentencing issues can and will garner votes from an array of Justices across the jurisprudential spectrum.

2.  ACCA in application is ridiculous: The idea behind the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) makes sense: give longer sentences to dangerous people with guns who have a really bad criminal history.  But Wooden is also a reminder how crazy this statute functions in operation.  The actual offense behavior is largely irrelevant — William Wooden merely had a gun in his home for self protection, some have been tripped by merely possessing shotgun shells — and figuring out what criminal history triggers a 15-year mandatory minimum (as opposed to a 10-year maximum) is often a parlor game of such nonsensical semantics it would make Franz Kafka blush.

3.  Justices as magistrates with no majesty: Though a few concurrences had some flair (see below), the opinion of the Court and some others felt technocratic, resolving only this one case without having much to say about ACCA or any other issues.  Some may praise an opinion with so little majesty as a model of judicial modesty, but Justice Gorsuch's concurrence highlighted that not much really got resolved even as the Justices remained modest.  More generally, though the Wooden case implicates issues ranging from violent crimes to mandatory minimums, from Second Amendment rights to repeat offenders, few Justices wanted to do much more than parse definitions, hypos and legislative history.  Perhaps saying so little is how this case came out unanimously, but label me uninspired.

4.  Justice Kavanaugh as a mens rea maven: I have been wondering what criminal justice issues might be of particular interest and concern to Justice Kavanaugh, and his Wooden concurrence reveals he could develop into a mens rea maven.  Though his concurrence was mostly to push back against Justice Gorsuch's paean to the rule of lenity, Justice Kavanagh concludes by stressing his eagerness to "continue to vigorously apply (and where appropriate, extend) mens rea requirements" in statutory interpretation cases.  We might see more of what he means later this Term, as the pending case concerning doctors federally prosecuted for over-prescribing opioids turns on mens rea matters.  And litigants should be looking out for "appropriate" cases in which Justice Kavanaugh might be inclined to "extend" mens rea requirements.

5.  Justice Gorsuch as liberty lover: The US Constitution's preamble speaks of the document as a means to "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."   William Wooden, for possessing a gun in his home with his past criminal history, was punished with liberty deprivation for 15+ years in federal prison.  Only Justice Gorsuch mentions liberty in any of the many Wooden opinions, and he does so seven times.  Here are just a few choice mentions:

• "any reasonable doubt about the application of a penal law must be resolved in favor of liberty" 
• "But where uncertainty exists, the law gives way to liberty."
• "If the law inflicting punishment does not speak 'plainly' to the defendant’s conduct, liberty must prevail." 

I was pleased that Justice Gorsuch, joined by Justice Sotomayor, stressed liberty and thus brought the opinions in the Wooden case to a somewhat more satisfying end.  And I hope some of these "liberty in the face of uncertainty" sentiments find future expression in the work of many judges and Justices.

Prior related posts:

• SCOTUS rules unanimously in favor of defendant in latest Armed Career Criminal Act ruling
• Rounding up some accounts of the latest ACCA wackiness in Wooden