United States v. Thomas L. Hudspeth

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge, with whom POSNER, Chief Judge, and FAIRCHILD, FLAUM, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges, join,

concurring in part and dissenting in part.

Thomas L. Hudspeth and several others broke into a shopping mall and, in thirty-six minutes’ time, burglarized three stores. A bobtailed1 en banc court holds that those thirty-six minutes qualify him as a career criminal. Because I believe that this holding is contrary to the intent of the Congress and constitutes a significant departure from the approach this court has taken in previous eases, I respectfully dissent.

I

BACKGROUND

A person who has…