{"id":776,"date":"2011-04-21T10:06:55","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T14:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.law.harvard.edu\/journals\/hlpr\/?p=776"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:57:41","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:57:41","slug":"ninth-circuit-reconsiders-whether-a-citation-is-an-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/2011\/04\/21\/ninth-circuit-reconsiders-whether-a-citation-is-an-arrest\/","title":{"rendered":"Ninth Circuit Reconsiders Whether a \u201cCitation\u201d Is an \u201cArrest\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"color: #505050\"><em>Michael Stephan<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #505050\">On Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #3f6dcf\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110426015739\/http:\/\/www.ca9.uscourts.gov\/datastore\/opinions\/2011\/04\/19\/0950426ebo.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">decided to hear\u00a0<em>United States v. Leal-Felix<\/em>\u00a0en banc<\/a>.\u00a0 When a case is reheard en banc, the three-judge panel opinion is stripped of precedential force and\u2014in the Ninth Circuit\u2014a new, eleven-judge panel rehears the case.\u00a0 En banc hearings are relatively uncommon and are typically reserved for cases of particular importance, many of which are later heard by the Supreme Court.\u00a0\u00a0<em>Leal-Felix<\/em>, therefore, is a case to watch.\u00a0 It presents the following issue:\u00a0\u201c[W]hether a citation for a traffic violation is an arrest countable for criminal history under the Sentencing Guidelines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #505050\">In\u00a0<em><a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #3f6dcf\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110426015739\/http:\/\/www.ca9.uscourts.gov\/datastore\/opinions\/2010\/11\/01\/09-50426.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Leal-Felix<\/a><\/em>, this question was important in determining Leal-Felix\u2019s criminal history category, which is a major part of the sentencing calculus under the Guidelines.\u00a0 The Sentencing Guidelines provide judges with an advisory range of incarceration time for each convicted defendant.\u00a0 Leal-Felix was convicted of violating 8 U.S.C. \u00a7 1326(a) by illegally entering the U.S. after having been deported.\u00a0 Given the seriousness of his crime and his criminal history category, the Sentencing Guidelines advised that he be incarcerated for 21 to 27 months.\u00a0 Accordingly, the trial judge sentenced Leal-Felix to 21 months of imprisonment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #505050\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #505050\">Leal-Felix\u2019s criminal history score was based, in part, on the number of prior arrests he had.\u00a0 This number included a citation he received for driving with a suspended license.\u00a0 Leal-Felix argued that his traffic citation should not count as an arrest for sentencing purposes, but the majority of the original Ninth Circuit panel disagreed and affirmed the sentence.\u00a0 Had Leal-Felix\u2019s citation not been treated as an arrest, his Guidelines range would have been three months lower and he would likely have received a sentence of only 18 months of imprisonment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #505050\">The Ninth Circuit\u2019s laconic opinion relies on a Seventh Circuit case that characterizes a citation as a \u201cstreet arrest\u201d but not a \u201cfull custodial arrest.\u201d\u00a0 The 4-page majority opinion is challenged by a 25-page dissent, which points out\u00a0that the plain meaning of being \u201carrested\u201d does not include being \u201cstopped, briefly detained, issued a citation for a traffic or driving offense, and sent on [one\u2019s] way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #505050\">Now that\u00a0<em>Leal-Felix<\/em>\u00a0has been taken en banc, a larger panel of Ninth Circuit judges will reconsider whether a citation is an arrest.\u00a0 The answer to this question will dictate the penal futures of countless federal defendants whose sentences are affected by the Guidelines.\u00a0 What\u2019s more, the definition of \u201carrest\u201d in the sentencing context has potential to reshape our understanding of arrests, searches, and seizures in criminal procedure law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Stephan On Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals\u00a0decided to hear\u00a0United States v. Leal-Felix\u00a0en banc.\u00a0 When a case is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZQka-cw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}