John Ryan v. United States

Once again, we are called upon to unravel the complexities of collateral attacks on federal sentences. That task, which is hard enough when the question is what kjnds of defects in the original proceeding are serious enough to entitle a prisoner to have a conviction or sentence set aside, becomes even more difficult when the attack indirectly calls into question the results of earlier proceedings. Our case is such a case. We must decide here whether there is any way at all that a federal prisoner can challenge a federal sentence that was based in part on a void, unconstitutional prior state…