UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Linda D. JOHNSON, Defendant-Appellant

130 F.3d 1352, 97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 9239, 97 Daily Journal DAR 14911, 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS 34418, 1997 WL 757717
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedDecember 10, 1997
Docket96-30126
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 130 F.3d 1352 (UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Linda D. JOHNSON, Defendant-Appellant) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Linda D. JOHNSON, Defendant-Appellant, 130 F.3d 1352, 97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 9239, 97 Daily Journal DAR 14911, 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS 34418, 1997 WL 757717 (9th Cir. 1997).

Opinion

EUGENE A. WRIGHT, Circuit Judge.

Linda D. Johnson appeals her sentence for bank fraud. She challenges the constitutionality and applicability of U.S.S.G. § 2Fl.l(b)(6)(B). We reject these challenges and affirm her sentence.

I

While working as- a bank teller, Johnson embezzled $1,468,205.86. She was charged with bank fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1344 and pleaded guilty. At sentencing, the court imposed 40 months of imprisonment and five years of supervised release as well as a $50 special assessment, $12,800 in restitution, and 200 hours of community service. In calculating her sentence under the Sentencing Guidelines, the court increased her offense level under U.S.S.G. § 2Fl.l(b)(6), which provides:

If the offense—
(A) substantially jeopardized the safety and soundness of a financial institution; or
(B) affected a financial institution and the defendant derived more than $1,000,-000 in gross receipts from the offense,
increase by 4 levels. If the resulting offense level is less than level 24, increase to level 24. 1

Johnson does not dispute that the bank is a financial institution, nor that she embezzled more than $1,000,000. She contends that the term “affected” renders the provision unconstitutionally vague and, alternatively, argues that the bank was not affected because it did not suffer a net financial loss from her fraud. Finally, she asks to be spared this increase in her offense level under the rule of lenity.

*1354 II

A. Standard of Review

We review de novo the constitutionality of sentencing guidelines. United States v. Gallagher, 99 F.3d 329, 333 (9th Cir.1996). Our review of the district court’s application of the sentencing guidelines is limited by 18 U.S.C. § 3742. United States v. Munster-Ramirez, 888 F.2d 1267, 1268-69 (9th Cir.1989). We must give due deference to the district court’s application of the guidelines to the facts. 18 U.S.C. § 3742(e). Unless the court imposed the sentence in violation of the law, applied the guidelines incorrectly, or imposed a sentence that is both outside the applicable guideline range and unreasonable, we must affirm. 18 U.S.C. § 3742(f)(3).

B. Constitutionality of U.S.S.G. § 2Fl.l(b)(6)(B)

Unconstitutional vagueness challenges to the Sentencing Guidelines have been questioned as theoretically unsound, see United States v. Wivell, 893 F.2d 156, 159-60 (8th Cir.1990), but we have countenanced such challenges in deference to the Supreme Court’s declaration that “vague sentencing provisions may pose constitutional questions if they do not state with sufficient clarity the consequences of violating a given criminal statute.” United States v. Gallagher, 99 F.3d 329, 334 (9th Cir.1996) (holding U.S.S.G. § 2Fl.l’s use of word “loss” not unconstitutionally vague) (quoting United States v. Batchelder, 442 U.S. 114, 123, 99 S.Ct. 2198, 2203, 60 L.Ed.2d 755 (1979)). Unless First Amendment freedoms are implicated, a vagueness challenge may not rest on arguments that the law is vague in its hypothetical applications, but must show that the law is vague as applied to the facts of the case at hand. Chapman v. United States, 500 U.S. 453, 467, 111 S.Ct. 1919, 1928, 114 L.Ed.2d 524 (1991); Gallagher, 99 F.3d at 334. The test for vagueness is whether the provision fails to give a person of ordinary intelligence fair notice that it would apply to the conduct contemplated. See Gallagher, 99 F.3d at 334.

Johnson observes that given the breadth of the word “affect,” the provision might apply in a wide variety of circumstances. She is correct. “Affect” is defined as “to act upon; influence; change; enlarge or abridge; often used in the sense of acting injuriously upon persons and things,” Black’s Law Dictionary 57 (6th Ed.1990).

The provision’s potential for broad applicability, however, exists only within a very narrow subset of circumstances: the defendant must have been convicted of an offense involving fraud or deceit and must have received more than $1,000,000 from that offense. Broad applicability within this context comports with Congress’s purpose in enacting the provision, which was to enhance penalties for fraud affecting financial institutions. House Report No. 101-681(1), reprinted in 1990 U.S.C.A.A.N. 6472, 6576 & 6582. In this spirit, the Fifth Circuit held that U.S.S.G. § 2F1.1(b)(6)(B) was applicable where the fraud’s effect on the financial institution was more attenuated than here. United States v. Schinnell, 80 F.3d 1064, 1069-70 (5th Cir.1996) (holding that wire fraud committed by business’s own employee “affected a financial institution” because business had contractual right to sue its bank to recover funds lost).

Johnson argues also that U.S.S.G. § 2Fl.l(b)(6)’s use of the phrase “substantially jeopardized the safety and soundness of a financial institution” as an alternative distinct from the phrase “affected a financial institution” renders the scope of the latter phrase unclear. We are not persuaded. The former phrase is applicable when the crime’s effect on the financial institution is significant, regardless of the amount of money taken by the defendant. The latter phrase is applicable when the amount of money taken by the defendant is significant-more than $l,000,00-regardless of the degree of effect upon the financial institution, so long as there is some effect.

Moreover, like Johnson’s other arguments, this argument fails to address the question dispositive of her vagueness challenge: Does U.S.S.G. § 2Fl.l(b)(6)(B) give fair notice to a person of ordinary intelligence that it would apply to one who defrauds a bank of more than $1.4 million? We hold that it does.

*1355 C. Applicability of U.S.S.G. § 2Fl.l(b)(6)(B)

Alternatively, Johnson argues that U.S.S.G.

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130 F.3d 1352, 97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 9239, 97 Daily Journal DAR 14911, 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS 34418, 1997 WL 757717, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-of-america-plaintiff-appellee-v-linda-d-johnson-ca9-1997.