Opinion analysis: Justices hold their fire on the ACCA, unanimously agreeing that burglary includes vehicles adapted or customarily used for overnight sleeping

In a brief and straightforward opinion, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that burglary as used in the federal Armed Career Criminal Act encompasses not just buildings but also any vehicle that has been adapted or is customarily used for overnight accommodation. As I previously reported, todays two consolidated cases (U.S. v. Stitt and U.S. v. Sims) were argued on the same day (October 9, Justice Brett Kavanaughs first day on the Supreme Court bench) as another ACCA case, Stokeling v. U.S. The court this morning did not issue an opinion in Stokeling, suggesting that the justices who have expressed unhappiness with the ACCA in the past may be holding their fire (that is, writing separate opinions) for Stokeling, which presumably will now not be decided until next year. Todays opinion in Stitt is crisp, clear and devoid of controversy.

Brief recap of the issue

Justice Stephen Breyers eight-and-a-half page opinion for a unanimous court concisely presents the issues. In 1986, Congress provided in the ACCA that various repeat offenders who are then federally convicted of unlawful firearms possession should receive a mandatory minimum 15-year imprisonment term. Congress listed burglary among the types of violent felony convictions that can qualify a person for an ACCA sentence, and in 1990 the court ruled in Taylor v. United States that the law requires a generic definition of burglary, that is, a categorical one based on the statutory elements rather than on the facts of any individual case. When state-court prior convictions are at issue, an ACCA judge therefore must look to the elements of the states burglary statute.

Both Victor Stitt and Jason Sims were otherwise eligible for an ACCA sentence; Stitt had prior convictions for burglary under Tennessee law and Sims under Arkansas law. They argued, however, that their prior burglary convictions ought not to count for ACCA purposes, because their states burglary statutes encompassed vehicles and thus went beyond the generic definition stated in Taylor: criminal invasion of a building or structure with intent to commit a crime inside. Both the district courts rejected this argument, but the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 6th and 8th Circuits agreed with it and vacated Stitt and Sims ACCA sentences.

Court: Vehicles are within the scope of structures

Tennessees statute criminalizes the burglary of a habitation, and defines habitation to include any vehicle that is designed or adapted for the overnight accommodation of persons. Arkansas statute similarly prohibits burglary of a residential occupiable structure and then defines that term to include a vehicle, building or other structure which is customarily used for overnight accommodation of persons. Today the court ruled, in harmony with the governments certiorari request, that [t]he relevant language of the Tennessee and Arkansas statutes falls within the scope of generic burglarys definition. Structure is broad enough to encompass vehicles, and in Taylor the Supreme Court had ruled that Congress intended, in the ACCA, to adopt a definition of burglary in the generic sense in which the term was used in the criminal codes of most States at the time. As the court explained today, at the time of the ACCAs 1986 adoption, a majority of state burglary statutes covered vehicles adapted or customarily used for lodging.

In addition, todays opinion noted that the ACCA Congress viewed burglary as inherently dangerous crime; the court went on to say that burglaries of a mobile home, an RV, [and even] a camping tent run a similar or greater risk of violent confrontation as the burglary of a house. Moreover, even if a vehicle is only used for lodging part of the time, we have no reason to believe that Congress intended to make a part-time/full-time distinction regarding burglaries, whether for homes or vehicles.

Papering over possible grounds for intra-court disagreement, Breyer quickly explained that even if two prior decisions did not name vehicles as within the ACCA, examination of those cases convinces us that we did not decide in either case the question before us. Thus the adapted for or customarily used for overnight accommodation definition is now adopted for burglary in all ACCA cases. Interestingly, the court remanded Sims case for further proceedings to consider an additional statutory argument under Arkansas law, while Stitts case is apparently finally decided, suggesting that Stitts prior burglary convictions fall squarely within the courts ruling today.

Conclusion: ACCA critics must wait for Stokeling

After todays decision, some federal ACCA defendants will still be able to argue about the vagaries of their particular states burglary law. But a majority of state burglary statutes will now presumably fall under the ACCA without dispute.

Meanwhile, the jaundiced view of the ACCA expressed at argument in these cases by Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and others will have to wait for expression until the opinion in Stokeling is issued. That case involves state convictions for robbery, and unlike in todays statutory question, the term robbery is not expressly used in the current version of the ACCA. Still, todays opinion seems to unanimously embrace a broad and deferential view of the ACCA. One might speculate that the justices have been stung in recent months by the bitter Kavanaugh confirmation process and Novembers tte tweet between the president and the chief justice. Perhaps a desire to demonstrate stability and unity will temper the justices divided views about the ACCA in Stokeling as well — or perhaps not. Stayed tuned after, one hopes, a relaxing holiday break.