Melvin Hodges, Jr. v. United States

In Johnson v. United States, 135 S. Ct. 2551 (2015), this Court held that imposing an increased sentence under the residual clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”) violated the Due Process Clause’s prohibition on vague laws. Before this Court struck down the mandatory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines in 2005, thousands of Americans received mandatory increased sentences under the identically-worded residual clause in the Guidelines’ career-offender provision, whose text was imported from ACCA’s residual clause. As many as 1,000 individuals in that group remain in prison. The circuits are split over whether these individuals may raise challenges to the Guidelines provision under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. The question presented is: Whether a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion filed within one year of Johnson can assert a timely, valid claim that the residual clause of the mandatory Guidelines is unconstitutionally vague.