Jeffrey Smith: Denying SOS to 924(c) defendant convicted of carjacking

In In re: Jeffrey Smith, No. 16-13661 (July 18, 2016), the Court denied leave to file a second or successive § 2255 motion to a defendant sentenced under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c), who claimed that this statute’s residual clause was unconstitutionally vague, and that his carjacking conviction, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2119, did not meet the requirements of this statute’s force clause. Interpreting its 1994 decision in U.S. v. Moore, the Court held that carjacking involving taking or attempting to take by force and violence or by intimidation, and this meets the force clause, which requires the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force. [Jill Pryor, dissenting, argued that Moore could be interpreted to have relied on the residual clause of § 924(c), not its force clause, particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s 1999 decision in Holloway v. U.S.].