The Supreme Court has granted certiorari in another pair of ACCA cases. Under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), 18 U.S.C. § 924(e), a defendant who possesses a gun faces a minimum 15-year sentence if he has three prior state or federal convictions that qualify as “violent” felonies or “serious drug offenses.” We have talked a lot recently about what qualifies as a “violent” felony. Now it is time to consider “serious drug offenses.”
Under § 924(e)(2)(A), a “serious drug offense” includes offenses “under State law, involving manufacturing, distributing, or possessing with intent to manufacture or distribute, a controlled substance (as defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802)), for which a maximum term of imprisonment of ten years or more is prescribed by law.”
Courts use the categorical approach to decide if a prior state conviction involves a “controlled substance,” comparing the elements of that …