United States v. Schneider

911 F.3d 504
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedDecember 11, 2018
DocketNo: 17-3034
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 911 F.3d 504 (United States v. Schneider) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth 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. Schneider, 911 F.3d 504 (8th Cir. 2018).

Opinion

After the panel opinion was filed on September 28, 2018, a judge in regular active service requested a poll on whether to rehear this appeal en banc. Five judges voted in favor of rehearing en banc; five judges voted against rehearing en banc; one judge is disqualified.

Accordingly, the suggestion to rehear the case en banc is denied. Chief Judge Smith, Judge Wollman, Judge Loken, Judge Colloton, and Judge Gruender would rehear the case en banc. Judge Erickson did not participate in the consideration or decision of this matter.

I would rehear this case en banc to reconsider the panel's decision that aggravated assault in North Dakota is not a "crime of violence" under USSG § 4B1.2(a). The panel's conclusion-that an offense encompassing reckless driving causing injury does not have as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another-is unsupported by the text of the guideline, has significant effect on the law of the circuit, and conflicts with other persuasive authority. We should undertake further review.

The panel opinion says that reckless driving causing injury "does not require physical force." United States v. Schneider , 965 F.3d 1088, 1092 (8th Cir. 2018). This is wrong. Injury requires physical force. As we explained in United States v. Winston , 845 F.3d 876, 878 (8th Cir.), cert. denied , --- U.S. ----, 137 S.Ct. 2201, 198 L.Ed.2d 265 (2017), "physical force" means force "capable of causing physical pain or injury to another person," Johnson v. United States , 559 U.S. 133, 140, 130 S.Ct. 1265, 176 L.Ed.2d 1 (2010), and "it is impossible to cause bodily injury without using force 'capable of' producing that result." United States v. Castleman , 572 U.S. 157, 134 S.Ct. 1405, 1416-17, 188 L.Ed.2d 426 (2014) (Scalia, J., concurring). It is also settled that a reckless application of force constitutes a "use" of force. Voisine v. United States , --- U.S. ----, 136 S.Ct. 2272, 2280, 195 L.Ed.2d 736 (2016) ; United States v. Fogg , 836 F.3d 951, 956 (8th Cir. 2016), cert. denied , --- U.S. ----, 137 S.Ct. 2117, 198 L.Ed.2d 203 (2017). Reckless driving causing injury thus has as an element the use of physical force against the person of another.

*505The panel decision applies circuit precedent that never analyzed the text of the guideline. United States v. Ossana , 638 F.3d 895, 900-01 (8th Cir. 2011), invoked the Supreme Court's application of the residual clause of 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii) to limit the scope of the "force" clause in USSG § 4B1.2(a). But the "force" clause has distinct textual elements, and decisions interpreting the residual clause are unenlightening. Ossana did not deny that reckless driving causing injury requires force, but added another element-not found in the text of the "force" clause-that an offender's conduct must be "purposeful, violent, and aggressive." 638 F.3d at 901 (quoting Begay v. United States , 553 U.S. 137, 144-45, 128 S.Ct. 1581, 170 L.Ed.2d 490 (2008) ). Insofar as Ossana implicitly ruled that a reckless application of force is not a "use" of force, that conclusion was superseded by Voisine and Fogg and should have been abandoned in United States v. Fields , 863 F.3d 1012 (8th Cir. 2017). See id. at 1016 (Loken, J., dissenting). As the Tenth Circuit recently recognized in rejecting Fields , nothing in the text of the "force" clause supports a distinction between reckless driving causing injury and other reckless uses of force that cause injury. United States v. Mann , 899 F.3d 898, 905-06 (10th Cir. 2018).

The decisions in Ossana , Fields , and Schneider have significant effect on the law of the circuit. Because the "force" clause of § 4B1.2(a) is identical to the "force" clause of 18 U.S.C.

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Bluebook (online)
911 F.3d 504, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-schneider-ca8-2018.