United States v. Jolon Carthorne, Sr.

My good friend Judge Keenan has written a very fine opinion. I assume her effort does not run afoul of the prohibition on advisory opinions by federal courts. See Preiser v. Newkirk, 422 U.S. 395, 401, 95 S.Ct. 2330, 45 L.Ed.2d 272 (1975) (stating “a federal court has neither the power to render advisory opinions nor to decide questions that cannot affect the rights of litigants in the case before them”) (internal quotation marks omitted).1 Accordingly, I *518am pleased to join that part of her opinion which adds to the extant circuit split on the issue of whether, under the residual clauses of…