U.S. v. Stephens

• Decision Date: 08 March 2006
• Docket Number: No. 04-50170.,04-50170.
• Citation: 439 F.3d 1083
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Antonio D. STEPHENS, Defendant Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

439 F.3d 1083

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Antonio D. STEPHENS, Defendant Appellant.

No. 04-50170.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

March 8, 2006.

U.S. Attorney, Carol M. Lee, Esq., Office of the U.S. Attorney, San Diego, CA, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Alice L. Fontier, Esq., Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc., San Diego, CA, for Defendant-Appellant.

Before STEPHEN REINHARDT, ANDREW J. KLEINFELD and RICHARD R. CLIFTON, Circuit Judges.

ORDER

The majority of the panel has voted to deny the petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc. Judge Clifton would grant the petition.

The full court was advised of the petition for rehearing en banc. A judge requested a vote on whether to rehear the matter en banc. The matter failed to receive a majority of the votes of the non-recused active judges in favor of en banc reconsideration. FED. R. APP. P. 35.

The petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc is denied.

TALLMAN, Circuit Judge, with whom WARDLAW, RAWLINSON, CLIFTON, BYBEE, CALLAHAN, and BEA, Circuit Judges, join, dissenting from denial of rehearing en banc:

Today, by ignoring the plain meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d), the court rewrites the language of an unambiguous statute, contravenes the United States Parole Commission's authoritative Rules and Procedures Manual, and disregards controlling Ninth Circuit case law by requiring district judges "to set the maximum number of non-treatment drug tests to which [a defendant] would be subjected during the course of his supervised release." United States v. Stephens, 424 F.3d 876, 878 (9th Cir.2005) (emphasis in original). The ruling makes no sense under a supervisory scheme that properly delegates to the court's probation officers responsibility for determining how best to enforce the terms and conditions of supervised release set months or years earlier by the sentencing judge. The drug testing condition is typically imposed and ordered by judges, as part of the original sentence, to become effective after release from incarceration based upon the offender's criminal history, the nature of the crime of conviction, and the Pre-Sentence Report. Congress no doubt had these policy considerations in mind when it passed § 3583(d), and we should refrain from frustrating them.

The panel's interpretation of § 3583(d) is contrary to the plain meaning of its language. Section 3583(d) reads, in relevant part:

The court shall also order, as an explicit condition of supervised release, that the defendant refrain from any unlawful use of a controlled substance and submit to a drug test within 15 days of release on supervised release and at least 2 periodic drug tests thereafter (as determined by the court) for use of a controlled substance. The condition stated in the preceding sentence may be ameliorated or suspended by the court as provided in section 3563(a)(4).

18 U.S.C. § 3583(d) (emphasis added). The opinion reasons that the parenthetical provision "as determined by the court" requires the district court "to set the maximum number of non-treatment drug tests to which [a defendant] would be subjected during the course of his supervised release." Stephens, 424 F.3d at 878 (emphasis in original). But the parenthetical modifies the adverb "at least." Indeed, although the parenthetical's preceding clause establishes the floor, it says nothing about the height of the ceiling.

The statute neither mentions nor even contemplates the existence of a maximum number of non-treatment drug tests. The statute, therefore, cannot be read to require district judges to perform a task that is not mentioned in the statute. Indeed, there is no point in having probation officers supervise the return to society of convicted felons if the officers may not exercise the necessary discretion to require additional drug testing when felons under their supervision exhibit the telltale signs of renewed drug use.

But even under the panel opinion's interpretation of the statute, there should be no problem with delegating to probation officers the authority to submit a supervised releasee to a drug test. "In fact, since `[t]he United States Probation Office is established pursuant to the direction of Congress as an arm of the United States District Court[,] ... it is reasonable to view the United States Probation Office itself as a legally constituted arm of the judicial branch.'" United States v. Reyes, 283 F.3d 446, 455 (2d Cir.2002) (alteration in original) (quoting United States v. Inserra, 34 F.3d 83, 88 (2d Cir.1994)).

The panel opinion engages in a precarious exercise to divine congressional intent. But rather than examining legislative history or consulting the United States Parole Commission's Rules and Procedures Manual for the responsible agency's reasonable interpretation of its duties under the statute, the opinion merely attempts to construct a tautological argument, declaring:

Congress's inclusion in § 3583(d), the supervised release provision, of the drug testing requirement and the parenthetical provision, "as determined by the court," as well as its provision that the drug testing condition may be "ameliorated or suspended by the court," is without question a plain expression of its intent that courts themselves determine not only whether the defendant will be tested during supervised release, but the maximum number of tests as well.

Stephens, 424 F.3d at 882. But the inference is too weak even to be called a tautology. I do not understand how one can infer from the language of the statute "a plain expression of [congressional] intent" about a provision that is not even contemplated by that statute.

Equally unsettling is the opinion's contravention of the policies of the United States Parole Commission, the agency within the United States Department of Justice created by congressional act to set policy for supervising convicted persons after their release from custody. In its authoritative Rules and Procedures Manual, the Parole Commission commands in no uncertain terms that as a condition of release "the parolee shall submit to a drug test whenever ordered by his Probation Officer." U.S. Parole Comm'n Rules & Procs. Manual § 2.40(a)(14) (U.S. Dep't. of Justice 2001) (emphasis added), available at http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps9890/ lps9890/www.usdoj.gov/uspc/ProcedureManual/part1.htm (last visited Feb. 21, 2006). The Rules and Procedures Manual further states that this condition is "attached to every grant of parole and [is] deemed necessary to provide adequate supervision and to protect the public welfare. [This condition is] printed on the certificate issued to each parolee and mandatory releasee...." Id. § 2.40(a).

The Rules and Procedures Manual goes on to define "drug test" so broadly that it "include[s] an `alcohol test.' Therefore, a United States probation officer may order a parolee to submit to a breathalizer or other alcohol test under this section." Id. § 2.40(a)(14). The United States Parole Commission has been entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing federal policy on the matter, ...