Shular v. United States

• Decision Date: 26 February 2020
• Docket Number: No. 18-6662,18-6662
• Citation: 206 L.Ed.2d 81,140 S.Ct. 779
• Parties: Eddie Lee SHULAR, Petitioner v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

140 S.Ct. 779

206 L.Ed.2d 81

Eddie Lee SHULAR, Petitioner

v.UNITED STATES

No. 18-6662

Supreme Court of the United States.

Argued January 21, 2020

Decided February 26, 2020

Jeffrey T. Green, David W. McAloon, Christopher S. Ross, TJ Herron, Laura C. Mulherin, Sidley Austin LLP, Washington, DC, Susan E. Provenzano, Northwestern Supreme, Court Practicum, Chicago, IL, Randolph P. Murrell, Federal Public, Defender, Richard M. Summa, Assistant Federal, Public Defender, Tallahassee, FL, for Petitioner.

Noel J. Francisco, Solicitor General, Brian A. Benczkowski, Assistant Attorney General, Eric J. Feigin, Jonathan C. Bond, Assistants to the Solicitor General, David M. Lieberman, Attorney, Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Respondent.

Justice GINSBURG delivered the opinion of the Court.

The Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), 18 U.S.C. § 924(e), mandates a 15-year minimum sentence of imprisonment for certain defendants with prior convictions for a "serious drug offense." A state offense ranks as a "serious drug offense" only if it "involv[es] manufacturing, distributing, or possessing with intent to manufacture or distribute, a controlled substance." § 924(e)(2)(A)(ii). This case concerns the methodology courts use to apply that definition.

While the parties agree that a court should look to the state offense's elements, they disagree over what the court should measure those elements against. In the Government's view, the court should ask whether those elements involve the conduct identified in § 924(e)(2)(A)(ii) —namely, "manufacturing, distributing, or possessing with intent to manufacture or distribute, a controlled substance." Petitioner Eddie Lee Shular, however, contends that the terms employed in the statute identify not conduct, but offenses. In his view, those terms are shorthand for the elements of the offenses as commonly understood. According to Shular, the court must first identify the elements of the "generic" offense, then ask whether the elements of the state offense match those of the generic crime.

Under the approach he advances, Shular argues, his sentence is not subject to ACCA enhancement. The generic offenses named in § 924(e)(2)(A)(ii), as Shular understands them, include a mens rea element of knowledge that the substance is illicit. He emphasizes that his prior convictions were for state offenses that do not make knowledge of the substance's illegality an element of the offense; the state offenses, he therefore maintains, do not match the generic offenses in § 924(e)(2)(A)(ii).

The question presented: Does § 924(e)(2)(A)(ii)'s "serious drug offense" definition call for a comparison to a generic offense? We hold it does not. The "serious drug offense" definition requires only that the state offense involve the conduct specified in the federal statute; it does not require that the state offense match certain generic offenses.

I

Ordinarily, a defendant convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of § 922(g)(1), faces a maximum sentence of ten years. § 924(a)(2). If the offender's prior criminal record includes at least three convictions for "serious drug offense[s]" or "violent felon[ies]," however, ACCA mandates a minimum sentence of 15 years. § 924(e)(1).

To determine whether an offender's prior convictions qualify for ACCA enhancement, we have used a "categorical approach," under which we look "only to the statutory definitions of the prior offenses." Taylor v. United States , 495 U.S. 575, 600, 110 S.Ct. 2143, 109 L.Ed.2d 607 (1990). Under this approach, we consider neither "the particular facts underlying the prior convictions" nor "the label a State assigns to [the] crime[s]." Mathis v. United States , 579 U.S. ––––, ––––, 136 S.Ct. 2243, 2251, 195 L.Ed.2d 604 (2016) (internal quotation marks and alterations omitted). So, for example, to apply ACCA's provision defining "violent felony" to include "burglary," § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii), we ask only whether the elements of the prior conviction constitute burglary; we do not ask what the person did or whether the offense of conviction was named "burglary."

Under some statutes, using a categorical approach requires the court to come up with a "generic" version of a crime—that is, the elements of "the offense as commonly understood," id. , at ––––, 136 S.Ct., at 2247.¹ We have required that step when the statute refers generally to an offense without specifying its elements. In that situation, the court must define the offense so that it can compare elements, not labels. For example, in Taylor , confronted with ACCA's unadorned reference to "burglary," we identified the elements of "generic burglary" based on the "sense in which the term is now used in the criminal codes of most States." 495 U.S. at 598–599, 110 S.Ct. 2143 ; § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii). We then inquired whether the elements of the offense of conviction matched those of the generic crime. Id. , at 602, 110 S.Ct. 2143. See also, e.g. , Esquivel-Quintana v. Sessions , 581 U.S. ––––, ––––, 137 S.Ct. 1562, 1568, 198 L.Ed.2d 22 (2017) ("generic federal definition of sexual abuse of a minor" for purposes of 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(A) ).

In contrast, other statutes calling for a categorical approach ask the court to determine not whether the prior conviction was for a certain offense, but whether the conviction meets some other criterion. For example, in Kawashima v. Holder , 565 U.S. 478, 132 S.Ct. 1166, 182 L.Ed.2d 1 (2012), we applied a categorical approach to a statute assigning immigration consequences to prior convictions for "an offense that ... involves fraud or deceit" with a loss exceeding $10,000. § 1101(a)(43)(M)(i). The quoted language, we held, "mean[s] offenses with elements that necessarily entail fraudulent or deceitful conduct ." Id. , at 484, 132 S.Ct. 1166 (emphasis added). Consequently, no identification of generic offense elements was necessary; we simply asked whether the prior convictions before us met that measure. Id. , at 483–485, 132 S.Ct. 1166. See also, e.g. , Stokeling v. United States , 586 U.S. ––––, –––– – ––––, 139 S.Ct. 544, 554, 202 L.Ed.2d 512 (2019) (determining whether an offense "has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another," 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)(i) ).

This case invites us to decide which of the two categorical methodologies just described applies in determining whether a state offense is a "serious drug offense" under ACCA. ACCA defines that term to include:

"an offense under State law, involving manufacturing, distributing, or possessing with intent to manufacture or distribute, a controlled substance (as defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. [§]802)), for which a maximum term of imprisonment of ten years or more is prescribed by law." 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(A)(ii).

II

Shular pleaded guilty in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida to possessing a firearm after having been convicted of a felony, in violation of § 922(g)(1), and possessing with intent to distribute cocaine and cocaine base, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(C). The District Court sentenced Shular to imprisonment for 15 years, the mandatory minimum under ACCA, to be followed by three years of supervised release.

In imposing that enhanced sentence, the District Court took account of Shular's prior convictions under Florida law. In 2012, Shular pleaded guilty to five counts of selling cocaine and one count of possessing cocaine with intent to sell, all in violation of Fla. Stat. § 893.13(1)(a). That law makes it a crime to "sell, manufacture, or deliver, or possess with intent to sell, manufacture, or deliver, a controlled substance." Ibid. For those offenses, "knowledge of the illicit nature of a controlled substance is not an element," but lack of such knowledge "is an affirmative defense." § 893.101(2). Shular's six convictions under that Florida law, the District Court concluded, qualified as "serious drug offense[s]" triggering ACCA enhancement under 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(A)(ii).

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the sentence. 736 Fed. Appx. 876 (2018). It relied on Circuit precedent holding that a court applying § 924(e)(2)(A)(ii) "need not search for the elements of ‘generic’ definitions" of any offense, because the statute "require[s] only that the predicate offense ‘involv[e]’ ... certain activities." United States v. Smith , 775 F.3d 1262, 1267 (2014).

Courts of Appeals have divided on whether § 924(e)(2)(A)(ii)'s "serious drug offense" definition requires a comparison to a generic offense. Compare, e.g. , id. , at 1267 (no generic-offense comparison), with United States v. Franklin , 904 F.3d 793, 800 (C.A.9 2018) (court must define a generic crime). We granted certiorari to resolve this conflict, 588 U.S. ––––, 139 S.Ct. 2690, 204 L.Ed.2d 1088 (2019), and now affirm the Eleventh Circuit's judgment.

III

A

The parties here agree that § 924(e)(2)(A)(ii) requires a categorical approach. A court must look only to the state offense's elements, not the facts of the case or labels pinned to the state conviction.

They differ, however, on what comparison § 924(e)(2)(A)(ii) requires. Shular would require "a generic-offense matching exercise": A court should define the elements of the generic offenses identified in § 924(e)(2)(A)(ii), then compare those elements to the elements of the state offense. Brief for Petitioner 13–14. In the Government's view, a court should apply "the Kawashima categorical approach": It should ask whether the state offense's elements "necessarily entail one of the types of conduct " identified in § 924(e)(2)(A)(ii). Brief for United States 13, 20 (emphasis added).

This methodological dispute is occasioned by an interpretive disagreement over § 924(e)(2)(A)(ii)'s reference to "manufacturing, distributing, or possessing with intent to manufacture or distribute, a controlled substance." Those...