United States v. Guillermo Arriaga-Pinon

I take the somewhat unusual step of writing a separate concurrence to address the issue the panel did not need to resolve, namely whether the Supreme Court’s recent analysis in Mathis v. United States, — U.S. —, 136 S.Ct. 2243, 195 L.Ed.2d 604 (2016) requires us to overrule Duenas-Alvarez v. Holder, 733 F.3d 812 (9th Cir. 2013). I conclude that it does. However, three judge panels should take care in overruling prior circuit precedent as posing an “irreconcilable conflict” with intervening precedent pursuant to Miller v. Gammie, 335 F.3d 889, 900 (9th Cir. 2003) (en banc). In this case,…