Amicus Briefs
U.S. v. Nasir
CASE SUMMARY
On December 1, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, sitting en banc in United States v. Malik Nasir, rejected deference to the U.S. Sentencing Commission based on the Supreme Court’s decision last year in Kisor v. Wilkie, which “cut back on what had been understood to be uncritical and broad deference to agency interpretations.”
NCLA filed an amicus brief in the case, urging the federal court to re-examine the circuit’s treatment of “Stinson Deference.” The 1993 Supreme Court decision, Stinson v. United States, commands federal judges to abandon their duty of independent judgment in violation of Article III and the judicial oath and to assign weight to a non-judicial entity’s interpretation of the law when imposing criminal sentences. It also raises serious due-process and separation-of-powers concerns when it causes courts to mandate judicial bias against a defendant, instead of lenity toward him.
Although the majority in the Third Circuit interpreted the text of the Guidelines in Mr. Nasir’s favor, Judge Stephen Bibas wrote separately to highlight the larger problems with Stinson deference that NLCA had raised in its amicus brief. Judge Bibas agreed that the rule of lenity dictates that courts cannot defer to an agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous rule when doing so would increase a criminal penalty. In his powerful concurrence, Judge Bibas reasoned that “[w]hatever the virtues” of administrative deference may be, “those virtues cannot outweigh life and liberty” in criminal cases.
The Third Circuit is now part of a growing chorus of circuits correcting an erroneous and unconstitutional application of judicial deference. NCLA has also helped convince the Sixth Circuit to limit its use of Stinson deference and has filed briefs with the United States Supreme Court in several challenging the failures of the Second, Eighth, and Tenth Circuits to revisit the issue in light of Kisor v. Wilkie.
OUR TEAM
RELEVANT MATERIALS
NCLA FILINGS
PRESS RELEASES
IN THE MEDIA
Circulating Opinion
Washington Legal Foundation
February 8, 2023
En Banc Third Circuit Knocks the U.S. Sentencing Commission Down a Few Pegs
NCLA Blog
December 3, 2020