Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Nicolas Mondragon-Gonzalez v. United States
IFP petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, No. 24-50758 · judgment August 27, 2025
Question presented
In the case of petitioner Nicolas Mondragon Gonzalez, he received a forty year sentence under the death enhancement in USSG § 2L1.1(b)(7)(D) based solely on but for causation for migrant deaths in a crash he did not directly cause, and this petition asks the Court to resolve the circuit split on the required causation standard and to enforce 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)’s command that punishment be just and no greater than necessary. Does the death enhancement in USSG 2L 1.1(b)(7)(d) require proof of direct or proximate causation, as held by the Eighth and Ninth Circuits, or may it be imposed based only on but for causation, as held by the Fifth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits? Whether the Fifth Circuit erred in holding that a forty-year sentence was substantively reasonable when the causal connection between the defendant’s conduct and the deaths was indirect, attenuated, and inconsistent with the statutory command that punishment be just and no greater than necessary?
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Nicolas Mondragon-Gonzalez
For respondent
D. John Sauer
Solicitor General
Case
Conference history
Distributed for 2 conferences
Proceedings
- May 04 2026Petition DENIED.
- Apr 16 2026DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/1/2026.
- Apr 10 2026Reply of petitioner Nicolas Mondragon-Gonzalez filed.
- Apr 06 2026Brief of respondent United States in opposition filed.
- Feb 20 2026Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including April 6, 2026.
- Feb 19 2026Motion to extend the time to file a response from March 6, 2026 to April 6, 2026, submitted to The Clerk.
- Jan 23 2026Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including March 6, 2026.
- Jan 22 2026Motion to extend the time to file a response from February 4, 2026 to March 6, 2026, submitted to The Clerk.
- Jan 05 2026Response Requested. (Due February 4, 2026)
- Dec 24 2025DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/9/2026.
- Dec 18 2025Waiver of right of respondent United States to respond filed.
- Nov 16 2025Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due December 24, 2025)