En Banc Fifth Circuit Confronts Precedent-Bound Criminal Appeal

The en banc US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit wrestled with whether it could still preside over a criminal case, even after the defendant asked the appeals court to affirm his conviction because it was bound by conflicting Supreme Court precedent.

Federal public defender Kristin Davidson told the court, hearing the case virtually Wednesday, that her client Elauterio Aguilar-Torres wanted to challenge the constitutionality of a provision against illegal reentry after removal. But a three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled 2-1 that, because both her client and the US government agreed those arguments were foreclosed by existing ...