United States v. Juan Rivera-Constantino

I respectfully dissent. The majority attempts to distinguish United States v. Garcia-Santana, 774 F.3d 528 (9th Cir.2014), and to sidestep the Taylor1 categorical approach to hold that a conspiracy conviction under 21 U.S.C. § 846 qualifies categorically as a drug trafficking offense, warranting the sixteen-level enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2(b)(l)(A)(i). Because I would follow Garcia-Santana, I would hold that where a prior conspiracy conviction under § 846 does not require proof of an overt act, it does not qualify categorically as a drug trafficking offense for purposes of the §…