The D.C. Circuit releases opinions on Tuesdays and Fridays. We read them all so you don’t have to. On Friday (June 22), the court issued two opinions:
United States v. Marlon Haight. Haight is a D.C. man who was convicted of gun and drug crimes and was sentenced to 12 years and 8 months behind bars. In an opinion by Judge Kavanaugh, the court rejected his challenges to his conviction stemming from evidentiary rulings and the district judge’s failure to postpone the trial. The court, however, agreed with a cross-appeal by the government, which argued that he deserved a minimum 15-year sentence under the Armed Career Criminals Act. Haight’s previous conviction for assault with a dangerous weapon counts as a “violent felony” under the act, Kavanaugh wrote. To reach that result, the court held that crimes committed recklessly can qualify as violent felonies—a conclusion shared by four other circuits but not by the First Circuit, which held the opposite.
Ameren Services Company v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. FERC wants to encourage electricity projects that span multiple geographic regions, and it calls on regional electrical providers to divide up the costs of those projects. Midcontinent Independent System Operator, an operator of transmission facilities in the Midwest, proposed a cost-allocation formula that would have excluded certain previously-approved projects in its calculation of costs. FERC rejected that formula, and the court, in an opinion by Judge Srinivasan, upheld FERC’s decision, saying it was not arbitrary or capricious.
