United States v. Meadows

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedMarch 12, 2025
Docket22-3155
StatusUnpublished

This text of United States v. Meadows (United States v. Meadows) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Meadows, (2d Cir. 2025).

Opinion

22-3155-cr United States v. Meadows

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT SUMMARY ORDER RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CITING A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL.

At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, in the City of New York, on the 12th day of March, two thousand twenty-five. Present: ROBERT D. SACK, WILLIAM J. NARDINI, MYRNA PÉREZ, Circuit Judges. _____________________________________ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee, v. 22-3155-cr JQUANN MEADOWS, Defendant-Appellant. * _____________________________________

For Appellee: WILLIAM C. KINDER (Stephen J. Ritchin, on the brief), Assistant United States Attorneys, for Damian Williams, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, New York, NY.

For Defendant-Appellant: ALLEGRA GLASHAUSSER, Assistant Federal Defender, Federal Defenders of New York, Inc., Appeals Bureau, New York, NY.

* The Clerk of Court is respectfully directed to amend the official caption as set forth above.

1 Appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of

New York (Cote, J.).

UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND

DECREED that the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED in part and REMANDED in

part with instructions to amend the written judgment.

Defendant-Appellant Jquann Meadows appeals from a judgment entered December 2,

2022, following his guilty plea to one count of possessing a firearm after having been convicted

of a felony, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(a)(2), and 2. The district court sentenced

Meadows to a 48-month term of incarceration, followed by three years of supervised release. The

district court calculated a U.S. Sentencing Guidelines range of 46 to 57 months’ imprisonment,

incorporating an enhancement based on its finding that Meadows had previously been convicted

of “a controlled substance offense.” U.S. Sent’g Guidelines Manual § 2K2.1(a)(4)(A). The district

court also imposed special conditions of supervised release. The first of the “Special Conditions

of Supervision” requires Meadows to submit to certain searches upon reasonable suspicion of a

violation of the terms of his release (the “search condition”). The second condition requires

Meadows to participate in drug treatment, including drug testing (the “drug treatment condition”).

Meadows raises three issues on appeal: (1) whether § 922(g)(1) violates the Second

Amendment to the United States Constitution as applied to Meadows; (2) whether the district court

erred in applying the enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(a)(4)(A) because Meadows was not

convicted of a “controlled substance offense”; and (3) whether the district court erred in imposing

the search condition and drug treatment condition of supervised release. We assume the parties’

familiarity with the remaining facts and procedural history, which we recount only as necessary to

2 explain our decision. For the following reasons, we remand with instructions to the district court

to amend the special conditions of supervised release and otherwise affirm the judgment.

I. Constitutionality of § 922(g)(1)

Meadows challenges the constitutionality of the statute under which he was convicted, 18

U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), under the Second Amendment. We need not resolve that constitutional

question because, as we explain below, there was no “plain error” in the application of § 922(g)(1)

to Meadows.

The parties agree that plain error review applies because Meadows raises this issue for the

first time on appeal. See United States v. Le, 902 F.3d 104, 109 (2d Cir. 2018). Among other

things, a “plain error” generally must be “clear or obvious, rather than subject to reasonable

dispute.” See United States v. Moore, 975 F.3d 84, 90 (2d Cir. 2020) (quoting United States v.

Balde, 943 F.3d 73, 96 (2d Cir. 2019)). “[W]e typically will not find such error where the operative

legal question is unsettled, including where there is no binding precedent from the Supreme Court

or this Court.” United States v. Napout, 963 F.3d 163, 183 (2d Cir. 2020) (citation omitted).

There was no plain error here because it is neither “clear” nor “obvious” that § 922(g)(1)

is unconstitutional in light of the recent Supreme Court decisions in New York State Rifle & Pistol

Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022), and United States v. Rahimi, 602 U.S. 680 (2024). In

United States v. Bogle, decided before Bruen and Rahimi, we upheld the constitutionality of

§ 922(g)(1) against a Second Amendment challenge. 717 F.3d 281, 281–82 (2d Cir. 2013). Since

Bruen, neither we nor the Supreme Court has revisited this issue, and other circuits have reached

varying results, though most have upheld § 922(g)(1) against constitutional challenges. 1 See

1 See, e.g., Range v. Att’y Gen. U.S. of Am., 69 F.4th 96, 106 (3d Cir. 2023) (en banc) (holding § 922(g)(1) unconstitutional as applied), cert. granted, judgment vacated sub nom. Garland v. Range, 144 S. Ct. 2706 (2024), and

3 United States v. Whab, 355 F.3d 155, 158 (2d Cir. 2004) (“[A]n error cannot be deemed ‘plain,’

in the absence of binding precedent, where there is a genuine dispute among the other circuits.”).

We therefore join prior decisions of this Court that rejected similar constitutional challenges to

§ 922(g)(1) under the plain-error standard. 2

II. Controlled Substance Offense Enhancement

Meadows next challenges the district court’s application of an enhancement under the U.S.

Sentencing Guidelines for unlawfully possessing a firearm after having committed a “controlled

substance offense.” We need not decide the merits of this argument because, as we explain below,

even if the district court erred in applying that enhancement, any such error would have been

harmless.

In 2018, Meadows was convicted of possessing cocaine, among other substances, in

violation of Georgia law. The appropriateness of the enhancement at issue turns on whether the

definition of “cocaine” under Georgia law is broader than under federal law. That, in turn, is a

adhered to sub nom. Range v. Att’y Gen. of U.S., 124 F.4th 218 (3d Cir. 2024) (en banc); United States v. Hunt, 123 F.4th 697, 700 (4th Cir. 2024) (holding § 922(g)(1) constitutional as applied); United States v. Contreras, 125 F.4th 725, 733 (5th Cir. 2025) (holding § 922(g)(1) constitutional on its face and as applied); United States v.

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United States v. Meadows, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-meadows-ca2-2025.