United States v. Vargas-Soto

Case: 20-10705 Document: 00516341053 Page: 1 Date Filed: 06/02/2022

United States Court of Appeals

for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals

Fifth Circuit

FILED

June 2, 2022

No. 20-10705 Lyle W. Cayce

Clerk

United States of America,

Plaintiff—Appellee,

versus

Jose Vargas-Soto,

Defendant—Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Northern District of Texas

USDC No. 4:18-cv-680

Before Davis, Elrod, and Oldham, Circuit Judges.

Andrew S. Oldham, Circuit Judge:

The question presented is whether Jose Vargas-Soto’s successive

motion for postconviction relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 is procedurally

barred. We say yes.

I.

We begin with (A) a description of the relevant legal background.

Then we explain (B) Vargas-Soto’s procedural history.

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A.

First some legal background. The Supreme Court long struggled with

interpreting various “residual clauses” in federal criminal statutes, such as

the definition of “violent felony” in the Armed Career Criminal Act

(“ACCA”) and the definition of “crime of violence” in the Immigration and

Nationality Act (“INA”). See 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B) (ACCA); 8 U.S.C.

§ 16(b) (INA). Initially, the Court applied a “categorical approach” to

determine whether a particular offense fell within a residual clause. See, e.g.,

Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 601 (1990) (holding that “the legislative

history of [ACCA] shows that Congress generally took a categorical approach

to predicate offenses”); Leocal v. Ashcroft, 543 U.S. 1 (2004) (applying the

categorical approach to the INA’s definition of “aggravated felony,” which

includes the residual clause’s definition of “crime of violence,” but not

addressing the constitutionality of the residual clause). That approach,

however, led to a litany of head-scratchingly inconsistent results. See

Chambers v. United States, 555 U.S. 122, 133 (2009) (Alito, J., concurring in

judgment) (“After almost two decades with Taylor’s ‘categorical approach,’

only one thing is clear: ACCA’s residual clause is nearly impossible to apply

consistently.”).

That led some on the Court to question whether ACCA’s residual

clause was unconstitutionally vague. See, e.g., James v. United States, 550 U.S.

192, 214–31 (2007) (Scalia, J., dissenting); Sykes v. United States, 564 U.S. 1,

28 (2011) (Scalia, J., dissenting) (reiterating the view that “ACCA’s residual

provision is a drafting failure and [should be] declare[d] . . . void for

vagueness”). For many years, however, the Court continued to apply the

residual clauses anyway.

After about a decade of struggling, the skeptics won. In Johnson v.

United States, 576 U.S. 591 (2015), the Supreme Court held ACCA’s residual

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clause violated the defendant’s due-process rights because it was “void for

vagueness” and overruled James and Sykes. Id. at 595–606. As with so many

landmark decisions, however, Johnson raised more questions than it

answered. Chief among them: whether the void-for-vagueness holding

should have retroactive effect, and whether other residual clauses (such as

the INA’s) are also unconstitutionally vague.

The Supreme Court started with retroactivity. The Court held that in

Johnson, it “announced a substantive rule that has retroactive effect in cases

on collateral review.” Welch v. United States, 578 U.S. 120, 127, 135 (2016);

cf. Schriro v. Summerlin, 542 U.S. 348, 353–55 (2004) (explaining the

difference between substantive and procedural rules).

Then the Court turned to whether Johnson extended to other residual

clauses. In Beckles v. United States, 137 S. Ct. 886 (2017), the Court concluded

that the “advisory Guidelines are not subject to vagueness challenges under

the Due Process Clause.” Id. at 890. In Sessions v. Dimaya, 138 S. Ct. 1204

(2018), the Court held that the INA’s residual clause was “similarly

worded” to the one in Johnson and in turn “suffer[ed] from the same

constitutional defect.” Id. at 1210. Finally, in United States v. Davis, 139 S.

Ct. 2319 (2019), the Court held that 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)’s residual clause was

unconstitutionally vague. Id. at 2336. The Supreme Court never took a case

to expressly decide whether Dimaya or Davis were retroactive to cases on

collateral review.

B.

Now, Vargas-Soto’s procedural history. Vargas-Soto has a long rap

sheet, starting long before James, Sykes, and Johnson. In 2001, he pleaded

guilty to driving while intoxicated (“DWI”). In 2003, he pleaded guilty to

manslaughter, intoxicated assault, and evading arrest, among other offenses.

In 2007, he pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a controlled substance

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(cocaine). In 2008, he pleaded guilty to illegal reentry after removal. In late

2009, the United States Government removed Vargas-Soto. But he

immediately returned and committed another crime: In 2010, Vargas-Soto

pleaded guilty to another DWI.

This finally brings us to his current term of imprisonment. In 2011, the

Government charged Vargas-Soto with illegal reentry after removal in

violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a).1 He pleaded guilty. The Government

contended that Vargas-Soto faced a maximum of 20 years because he

qualified for the sentencing enhancement in § 1326(b)(2) by previously

committing an “aggravated felony” under the residual clause’s definition of

a “crime of violence.”

On October 15, 2011, the district court agreed and sentenced Vargas-

Soto to 180 months. Vargas-Soto timely appealed. He challenged the district

court’s conclusion that his prior conviction for manslaughter qualified as a

“crime of violence” (and thus an “aggravated felony”); he did not challenge

the residual clause for vagueness. Applying plain-error review, we affirmed

the district court’s judgment. United States v. Vargas-Soto, 700 F.3d 180 (5th

Cir. 2012).

1

Under the pre-1996 INA, proceedings brought against aliens attempting to enter

the country were called “exclusion proceedings,” and proceedings brought against aliens

already present in the United States were called “deportation proceedings.” In 1996,

Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act

(“IIRIRA”), Pub. L. No. 104-208, 110 Stat. 3009 (1996) (codified as amended in scattered

sections of Title 8 of the U.S. Code). After IIRIRA, both kinds of proceedings are simply

called “removal proceedings.” See IIRIRA § 309(d)(2) (“[A]ny reference in law to an

order of removal shall be deemed to include a reference to an order of exclusion and

deportation or an order of deportation.”); see also Ali v. Barr, 951 F.3d 275, 277 n.1 (5th Cir.

2020) (discussing the change in nomenclature).

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Vargas-Soto then petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of

certiorari. On February 25, 2013, the Court denied it. That made Vargas-

Soto’s conviction final.

Between 2013 and 2018, Vargas-Soto filed (or sought authorization to

file) numerous motions for collateral review, including at least one § 2255

motion. None succeeded. And only one prior filing is relevant here. On June

27, 2016, Vargas-Soto sought authorization to file a successive § 2255 motion

based on the Supreme Court’s decisions in Johnson (2015) and Welch (2016).

We denied that request because then-binding Fifth Circuit precedent

foreclosed Vargas-Soto’s vagueness challenge to the INA’s residual clause.

In 2018, the Supreme Court decided Dimaya. Vargas-Soto quickly

moved for authorization to file a successive § 2255 motion. This time we

granted his request. Vargas-Soto then filed the instant § 2255 motion on

August 15, 2019.

The district court denied Vargas-Soto’s § 2255 motion and his request

for a certificate of appealability (“COA”). The court acknowledged that the

sentencing judge relied on the now-unconstitutional residual clause, but the

court still determined that § 16(a)’s definition of “crime of violence” (i.e.,

the “elements clause”) justified Vargas-Soto’s sentence. According to the

court, Vargas-Soto’s manslaughter conviction met the elements clause

because the offense had a “use of force” element, even though the

manslaughter offense required only a mens rea of recklessness. The court also

denied a COA because Vargas-Soto failed to show that “reasonable jurists

would question” the ruling.

Soon after, Vargas-Soto sought a COA from us. Without explanation,

a panel of our court granted that certificate. After the initial COA grant, the

Supreme Court decided Borden v. United States, 141 S. Ct. 1817 (2021).

There, the Court addressed the proper interpretation of ACCA’s elements

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clause, which has materially identical language to the INA’s elements clause,

and held that a criminal offense does not qualify “if it requires only a mens rea

of recklessness.” Id. at 1821–22 (plurality op.); see also United States v. Gomez

Gomez, 23 F.4th 575 (5th Cir. 2022) (per curiam) (applying Borden to the

INA’s elements clause). Thereafter, a member of this court amended the

COA to state:

A certificate of appealability is granted on these two issues:

1. Was Mr. Vargas’s sentence enhanced under the

unconstitutional residual clause found in 18 U.S.C.

§ 16(b)?

2. Is Mr. Vargas entitled to collateral relief under 28

U.S.C. § 2255?2

II.

We begin with two jurisdictional questions. We first hold (A) Vargas-

Soto’s § 2255 motion is not barred by AEDPA’s res judicata provision. Then

we hold (B) Vargas-Soto’s motion was properly authorized under

§ 2255(h)(2). We therefore have jurisdiction.

2

It’s not clear that the amended COA is valid. See United States v. Castro, 30 F.4th

240, 246 (5th Cir. 2022) (holding “that our court can raise COA defects sua sponte—just

as it can raise numerous other defects in postconviction proceedings”). Under 28 U.S.C.

§ 2253(c)(2), we “may” grant a COA “only if the applicant has made a substantial showing

of the denial of a constitutional right.” The COA then must “indicate which specific issue

or issues satisfy the showing required by paragraph (2).” Id. § 2253(c)(3) (emphasis added).

It’s not clear that either of the two issues are “specific” enough to make “a substantial

showing of the denial of a constitutional right.” Id. § 2253(c)(2), (3) (emphases added).

Because we conclude that Vargas-Soto procedurally defaulted his claim, we need not

address this non-jurisdictional issue. See Castro, 30 F.4th at 247. But we hasten to

underscore that further care is needed when proposing, drafting, and granting COAs.

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A.

AEDPA has a strict res judicata provision. It bars—with no

exceptions—any claim “that was presented in a prior application.” 28

U.S.C. § 2244(b)(1). The Supreme Court has held that this bar is

jurisdictional. See Panetti v. Quarterman, 551 U.S. 930, 942 (2007).

And this bar applies to § 2255 motions. Under § 2255(h), a movant

must get authorization to file “[a] second or successive motion . . . as provided

in section 2244 by a panel of the appropriate court of appeals.” (Emphasis

added.) We’ve held that “this cross-reference incorporates § 2244(b)(1)’s

strict relitigation bar into § 2255(h)’s scheme.” In re Bourgeois, 902 F.3d 446,

447 (5th Cir. 2018); cf. Avery v. United States, 140 S. Ct. 1080, 1080 (2020)

(Kavanaugh, J., statement respecting the denial of certiorari) (noting that the

Second, Third, Seventh, Eighth, and Eleventh Circuits agree but that the

Sixth Circuit recently disagreed). Thus, we must “dismiss[]” a “claim

presented” in a “second” motion “that was presented in a prior” motion.

28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(2).

To see why Vargas-Soto’s claim is nevertheless not barred, consider

what kind of claim Vargas-Soto asserts. He contends that his motion presents

a “Dimaya claim.” But we’ve recently held that there are no separate claims

for Johnson, Dimaya, and Davis; rather, there’s just one claim based on the

same void-for-vagueness ground (hereinafter, “void-for-vagueness claim” or

“vagueness claim”). See United States v. Castro, 30 F.4th 240, 247 (5th Cir.

2022) (concluding that a Johnson claim is the same as a Davis claim because

they are “based on the same ground (void-for-vagueness)”). So Vargas-Soto

presents a void-for-vagueness claim.

Vargas-Soto hasn’t presented this claim in a motion before. The only

other time he presented a void-for-vagueness claim was in a request for

authorization to file a successive § 2255 motion shortly after Johnson and

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Welch. But AEDPA clearly distinguishes a request for authorization to file a

motion for relief from the motion itself. Compare, e.g., 28 U.S.C.

§ 2244(b)(3)(A) (“Before a second or successive application permitted by

this section is filed in the district court, the applicant shall move in the

appropriate court of appeals for an order authorizing the district court to

consider the application.”), with id. § 2244(b)(2) (barring a claim that’s

presented in a second filed “application”); see also Beras v. Johnson, 978 F.3d

246, 252 (5th Cir. 2020) (explaining that while state prisoners file

“applications,” federal prisoners file “motions”). Here, we denied Vargas-

Soto’s request for authorization to file his motion. That means he never

actually filed the underlying motion. And it also means that AEDPA’s

absolute bar on previously presented claims is inapplicable.

B.

Even for claims that have not been made in a prior motion, AEDPA

eliminates federal jurisdiction over second-or-successive motions, unless

they are first authorized by the court of appeals to “meet the strict procedural

requirements” of 28 U.S.C. § 2255(h). See United States v. Wiese, 896 F.3d

720, 723–24 (5th Cir. 2018). Pursuant to those strict procedural

requirements, we must make certain conclusions before authorizing a

second-or-successive motion. As relevant here, § 2255(h)(2) requires us to

conclude that Vargas-Soto’s underlying claim relies on “[1] a new rule of

constitutional law, [2] made retroactive to cases on collateral review by the

Supreme Court, that [3] was previously unavailable.” We consider each

requirement in turn.

1.

Vargas-Soto first must show that Dimaya announced a new rule of

constitutional law. He does.

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“A rule is new unless it was dictated by precedent existing at the time

the defendant’s conviction became final.” Edwards v. Vannoy, 141 S. Ct.

1547, 1555 (2021) (quotation omitted). “In other words, a rule is new unless,

at the time the conviction became final, the rule was already apparent to all

reasonable jurists.” Ibid. (quotation omitted).

Dimaya was not dictated by precedent when Vargas-Soto’s conviction

became final. After Johnson, our en banc court concluded that the INA’s

residual clause was not unconstitutionally vague. See United States v.

Gonzalez-Longoria, 831 F.3d 670 (5th Cir. 2016) (en banc). Dimaya abrogated

this decision. And it did so over a four-justice dissent. See 138 S. Ct. at 1234–

41 (Roberts, C.J., dissenting); see also id. at 1242–59 (Thomas, J., dissenting).

Therefore, we conclude that the rule adopted in Dimaya was open to

reasonable debate and not “dictated by” Johnson.

Moreover, Supreme Court precedent instructs us to focus on when

“the defendant’s conviction became final” to determine whether a rule is

new. Edwards, 141 S. Ct. at 1555; see also, e.g., Lambrix v. Singletary, 520 U.S.

518, 527–28 (1997). Vargas-Soto’s conviction became final in 2013. At that

point, neither Johnson nor Dimaya had been decided. If Dimaya wasn’t

dictated by precedent after Johnson, it certainly wasn’t when Vargas-Soto’s

conviction became final. Cf. Welch, 578 U.S. at 129 (“It is undisputed that

Johnson announced a new rule.”). In short, Dimaya announced a new rule of

constitutional law.

2.

Vargas-Soto next must show that the Supreme Court has made

Dimaya retroactive to cases (like his) on collateral review. This time Vargas-

Soto technically cannot make that showing, but precedent requires us to

agree with him anyway.

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In Tyler v. Cain, 533 U.S. 656 (2001), the Supreme Court explained

two ways that it can make a new rule of constitutional law retroactive under

§ 2255(h)(2).3 First, the Supreme Court itself can expressly hold that a new

rule is retroactive on collateral review. Id. at 662–64. Or second, the Supreme

Court’s holdings in “[m]ultiple cases can render a new rule retroactive” but

“only if the holdings in those cases necessarily dictate retroactivity of the new

rule.” Id. at 666. We cannot infer that the Supreme Court has made

something retroactive “when it merely establishes principles of retroactivity

and leaves the application of those principles to lower courts.” Id. at 663.

The Supreme Court has not expressly made Dimaya retroactive. As

we previously held: “Dimaya did not address whether its holding might apply

retroactively on collateral review.” Pisciotta v. Harmon, 748 F. App’x 634,

635 (5th Cir. 2019) (per curiam). We’ve reached the same conclusion in

considering whether the Court made Davis retroactive, and for retroactivity

under § 2255(h)(2), “[t]here is no principled distinction between Dimaya

and Davis.” In re Hall, 979 F.3d 339, 346 (5th Cir. 2020).

Thus, Dimaya can be retroactive only if the holdings of multiple

Supreme Court cases “necessarily dictate retroactivity.” Tyler, 533 U.S. at

666. And to show that, Vargas-Soto must rely on Schriro, Johnson, Welch, and

Dimaya. Schriro held that new substantive rules generally apply retroactively.

Johnson held that the term “violent felony” in ACCA was void. Welch held

that Johnson declared a new rule of constitutional law that is retroactive

because it changed the substantive reach of the relevant statute. Dimaya

extended the right initially recognized in Johnson and held that the term

“crime of violence” in the INA was unconstitutionally vague, changing its

3

In Tyler, the Supreme Court addressed a state prisoner’s § 2244(b)(2)(A)

application. But the retroactivity language in that provision is materially identical to that in

§ 2255(h)(2), which applies to federal prisoners.

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substantive reach. The combined holdings of Schriro, Johnson, Welch, and

Dimaya thus “necessarily dictate retroactivity.” Tyler, 533 U.S. at 666; but

cf. Hall, 979 F.3d at 347 (“A reasonable jurist could easily read Welch and

conclude that Davis’s retroactivity logically follows. But that is different from

saying that Welch necessarily dictates that outcome.”).

That’s obviously quite a fruit salad of precedent. And a lot hinges on

whether we’re correctly inferring the Supreme Court’s meaning from four

different cases spanning multiple decades. Cf. In re Harris, 988 F.3d 239, 241

(5th Cir. 2021) (Oldham, J., concurring) (“If it were up to me, I’d wait until

the Supreme Court itself made Davis retroactive, as § 2255(h)(2) requires.

But at this point, we have numerous Fifth Circuit panels that have authorized

successive motions under § 2255(h)(2) to raise Davis claims.”). But under

our precedent, we’re constrained to hold that the Supreme Court has made

Dimaya retroactive.

3.

Vargas-Soto last must show that Dimaya’s new and retroactive rule

was previously unavailable. Again, he does.

“To satisfy this requirement, the new constitutional rule [Vargas-

Soto] puts forth must not have been available to him when he brought his last

federal proceeding—including an authorization motion—challenging his

conviction.” In re Thomas, 988 F.3d 783, 790 (4th Cir. 2021). Vargas-Soto’s

last proceeding before the instant § 2255 motion was a request for

authorization to file a successive § 2255 motion after Johnson and Welch but

before Dimaya. Because Dimaya announced a new rule even after Johnson,

the claim was previously unavailable to Vargas-Soto.

Vargas-Soto’s motion thus passes § 2255(h)(2). We have jurisdiction.

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III.

Our first merits question is whether Vargas-Soto’s § 2255 motion is

time-barred. We can raise this question sua sponte. See Day v. McDonough, 547

U.S. 198, 209 (2006).

Section 2255(f ) says a one-year limitations period “applies to ‘all

motions’ under § 2255, initial motions as well as second or successive ones.”

Dodd v. United States, 545 U.S. 353, 359 (2005). The limitations period

“run[s] from the latest of” four dates. 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f ). Here, the

relevant trigger for starting the limitations period is “the date on which the

right asserted was initially recognized by the Supreme Court, if that right has

been newly recognized by the Supreme Court and made retroactively

applicable to cases on collateral review.” Id. § 2255(f )(3). We call this “the

(f )(3) trigger” and ask when the Court “initially recognized” “the right

asserted” in Vargas-Soto’s § 2255 motion.

We hold (A) the Supreme Court initially recognized that right in

Johnson. Then we explain (B) why Dimaya didn’t reset the (f )(3) trigger. We

last hold (C) Vargas-Soto’s § 2255 motion is nonetheless timely.

A.

We start with “the right asserted” in Vargas-Soto’s § 2255 motion.

This inquiry immediately presents a level-of-generality problem. At a high

level of generality, the right asserted by Vargas-Soto is the right to fair notice

of the law. The initial recognition of that right dates back to before the

Founding. See, e.g., Antonin Scalia, The Rule of Law as a Law of Rules, 56 U.

Chi. L. Rev. 1175, 1179 (1989) (discussing Nero’s practice of posting laws

high on pillars so that they would be harder to read and easier to break). At a

much more granular level, “the right asserted” by Vargas-Soto’s motion was

recognized in Dimaya. That decision, after all, is where the Court held

unconstitutional the INA provision under which Vargas-Soto was sentenced.

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So the initial recognition of his asserted right—and hence the beginning of

his limitations period—is somewhere between 50 A.D. (Nero) and 2018

(Dimaya).

To pick the appropriate level of generality, we return to the statutory

text. The (f )(3) trigger restarts a prisoner’s limitations period on “the date

on which the right asserted was initially recognized by the Supreme Court, if

that right has been newly recognized by the Supreme Court and made

retroactively applicable to cases on collateral review.” 28 U.S.C.

§ 2255(f )(3). This text “unequivocally identifies one, and only one, date [for

the (f )(3) trigger]: ‘the date on which the right asserted was initially

recognized by the Supreme Court.’” Dodd, 545 U.S. at 357 (quoting the

(f )(3) trigger). Then the text specifies two conditions, both of which must

obtain to pull the (f )(3) trigger: (a) the Court must’ve newly recognized the

asserted right, and (b) the Court must’ve made it retroactively applicable to

cases on collateral review.

The upshot of this text, the Court has acknowledged, can be “harsh”

and “difficult” for prisoners. Id. at 359. That’s because the (f )(3) trigger can

be pulled—and the one-year clock can be running—but the prisoner won’t

know it until both the (a) and (b) conditions are met. Think about it like a

leaky roof. The roof can start leaking on Day X. But the homeowner won’t

actually know it until some later Day Y after two conditions are met—when

(a) the homeowner goes into the attic and (b) finds a puddle of water. This

can generate harsh and difficult results for the homeowner because the leak

started on Day X, no matter that the homeowner discovered it on some later

Day Y.

The (f )(3) trigger works exactly the same way. The Court initially

recognizes a right on Day X. That immediately starts a one-year limitations

period for all prisoners who want the benefit of the (f )(3) trigger, even if

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(a) the Court has not yet clarified that the right is a newly recognized one,

and (b) the Court has not yet made it retroactive. The (f )(3) clock is running

all the same. See Dodd, 545 U.S. at 359. Perhaps Day Y—that is, a

hypothetical later date on which the Court clarifies that the right is (a) newly

recognized and (b) retroactive—rolls around 364 days after Day X. Or

perhaps Day Y is 700 days after Day X. Again, it doesn’t matter. Day X is and

always will be the operative date for when the (f )(3) trigger starts a new

limitations period.

So, how does all this apply to Vargas-Soto? He asserts the right not to

be sentenced on the basis of an unconstitutionally vague residual clause. The

Court initially recognized that right in Johnson, on June 26, 2015. That is Day

X and hence the (f )(3) trigger for Vargas-Soto. It’s true that no one—

including Vargas-Soto—could’ve known that the (f )(3) trigger had been

pulled and that the limitations period was running on Day X. Vargas-Soto

could not have known that until the much later Day Y—when the Court

specified (a) that it newly recognized the right in Johnson and (b) made it

retroactive to cases on collateral review. The Court did (a) in several cases.

See, e.g., Beckles, 137 S. Ct. at 892 (explaining Johnson recognized that “the

Due Process Clause prohibits the Government from taking away someone’s

life, liberty, or property under a criminal law so vague that it fails to give

ordinary people fair notice of the conduct it punishes, or so standardless that

it invites arbitrary enforcement” (quotation omitted)). And as discussed

above in Part II.B, the Court did not make the Johnson right retroactive to

prisoners like Vargas-Soto until it decided Dimaya on April 17, 2018. Thus,

Day Y (the day when both conditions were met) was 1,026 days after Day X

(the day the Court initially recognized the asserted right). But that does

nothing to change the operative date for the (f )(3) trigger. The Court pulled

it—and hence started Vargas-Soto’s limitations period—when it decided

Johnson on Day X: June 26, 2015.

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B.

It’s wrong to suggest that Dimaya reset the (f )(3) trigger. As explained

above, Dimaya was the last case in the string of precedents that made Johnson

applicable to Vargas-Soto’s sentence. But the (f )(3) trigger is not pulled by

the last case in the string; it’s pulled by the first one. That is, (f )(3) starts the

limitations period when the Supreme Court initially recognizes the right—as

it did in Johnson. To hold otherwise would squarely contravene the Court’s

opinion in Dodd.

Neither United States v. Morgan, 845 F.3d 664 (5th Cir. 2017), nor

United States v. London, 937 F.3d 502 (5th Cir. 2019), is to the contrary. Both

opinions have stray sentences that, wrenched from context, might be read to

conflate the (f )(3) trigger with the “new rule” requirement in § 2255(h)(2).

But it’s never a fair reading of precedent to take such sentences out of

context. See Brown v. Davenport, 142 S. Ct. 1510, 1528 (2022) (“This Court

has long stressed that the language of an opinion is not always to be parsed as

though we were dealing with the language of a statute.” (quotation omitted)).

And that’s especially so where the out-of-context reading would directly

contravene the Supreme Court’s binding precedent in Dodd. The better

reading of our cases is that, in accordance with Dodd (and the plain and

ordinary meaning of § 2255), the (f )(3) trigger starts the limitations period

when the Court initially recognizes a right.

Take Morgan. There, the movant argued that the Supreme Court

initially recognized a right in Descamps v. United States, 570 U.S. 254 (2013).

Rather than analyze the text of the (f )(3) trigger, we focused on whether

Descamps established a “new rule” under § 2255(h)(2). We held it did not

and therefore Morgan’s claim was untimely. See Morgan, 845 F.3d at 668.

That makes perfect sense because a “new rule” is always a necessary

but insufficient condition for the (f )(3) trigger. That is, the (f )(3) trigger

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requires three things—an initially recognized right (on Day X) that satisfies

conditions (a) and (b). The second condition (b), in turn, hinges on the

retroactivity inquiry for “new rules.” Thus, if (b) is not met, then the (f )(3)

trigger is not pulled, and no new limitations period applies. Morgan therefore

held that the prisoner could not get the benefit of the (f )(3) trigger because

he could not satisfy one of its prerequisites—namely, the (b) condition.

Likewise in London. There, the prisoner wanted the benefit of the

(f )(3) trigger based on the right initially recognized in Johnson. The problem,

however, was that Johnson initially recognized the constitutional right to

challenge a vague sentencing statute, and London wanted to extend that

holding to the Sentencing Guidelines. London, 937 F.3d at 507–09. We held

that extending Johnson to the Guidelines would require a new rule that the

Supreme Court had not yet made, much less made retroactive to cases on

collateral review. See id. at 507. Thus, as in Morgan, the (b) condition for the

(f )(3) trigger was not met, and hence the prisoner could not get the benefit of

the (f )(3) limitations period.

Neither Morgan nor London nor any other case in this circuit even

suggests that a new rule (like Dimaya) is sufficient standing alone to trigger a

new limitations period under (f )(3). And that’s for good reason. If a new rule

were sufficient to trigger a one-year limitations period under (f )(3), then

Congress would have written (f )(3) the way it wrote (h)(2). See Wis. Cent.

Ltd. v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 2067, 2071 (2018) (“We usually presume

differences in language like this convey differences in meaning.” (quotation

omitted)); Antonin Scalia & Bryan A. Garner, Reading Law:

The Interpretation of Legal Texts 170 (2012) (“[A] material

variation in terms suggests a variation in meaning.”); see also ibid. (“And

likewise, where the document has used one term in one place, and a

materially different term in another, the presumption is that the different

term denotes a different idea.”). The plain and ordinary meaning of the (f )(3)

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trigger requires more than a new rule, so there’s no basis in law or logic for

an assertion that a new rule like Dimaya is sufficient to trigger a new (f )(3)

limitations period.

C.

Because Dimaya does not trigger a new (f )(3) limitations period,

Vargas-Soto is stuck with the one triggered by Johnson. The Court decided

Johnson on June 26, 2015. Vargas-Soto requested authorization to file the

instant § 2255 motion on August 15, 2018—more than three years after Day

X (i.e., the day the Supreme Court initially recognized the asserted right). So

you might think that he’s too late.

But he’s not. That’s because Vargas-Soto timely filed a request for

authorization within one year of Johnson. Specifically, he requested

authorization under § 2255(h)(2) on the very last day he had to satisfy the

limitations period.4 In that request for authorization, Vargas-Soto argued that

his sentence should be vacated because the INA’s residual clause was

unconstitutionally vague—the same argument he obviously makes now. So

Vargas-Soto did his part and satisfied AEDPA’s limitations period.

We, on the other hand, fell short. On September 2, 2016, we denied

Vargas-Soto’s timely request for authorization. We apparently thought that

Johnson and Welch provided no help to a prisoner, like Vargas-Soto, who was

sentenced under the INA. But Dimaya makes clear that our 2016 denial was

wrong. We therefore hold that Vargas-Soto timely filed—not because he filed

4

A prisoner satisfies the limitations period when he files, in accordance with the

prison mailbox rule, his request for authorization to file a second-or-successive § 2255

motion within one year of the (f )(3) trigger. See In re Williams, 759 F.3d 66, 68–69 (D.C.

Cir. 2014) (Sentelle, J.). The limitations period under (f )(3) expired on June 26, 2016, but

that was a Sunday. That gave Vargas-Soto an extra day, through June 27, under Federal

Rule of Civil Procedure 6(a)(2)(C). Vargas-Soto filed his request on June 27.

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within one year of Dimaya, but rather because he filed within one year of

Johnson.

IV.

Next, we turn to procedural default. All agree that Vargas-Soto

procedurally defaulted his void-for-vagueness claim. The only question is

whether he can excuse that default. To do so, Vargas-Soto must show either

(A) cause and prejudice or (B) actual innocence. Gonzales v. Davis, 924 F.3d

236, 242 (5th Cir. 2019) (per curiam); see also United States v. Frady, 456 U.S.

152, 167–68 (1982) (procedural default applicable to § 2255 motions); United

States v. Willis, 273 F.3d 592, 596 (5th Cir. 2001) (same). We hold that

Vargas-Soto can’t show either requirement.

A.

Start with cause. To establish it, the movant “must show that some

objective factor external to the defense impeded counsel’s efforts to comply

with the [relevant] procedural rule.” Davila v. Davis, 137 S. Ct. 2058, 2065

(2017) (quotation omitted). “A factor is external to the defense if it cannot

fairly be attributed to” the movant. Ibid. (quotation omitted). The Supreme

Court has not provided “an exhaustive catalog of such objective

impediments to compliance with a procedural rule,” but “a showing that the

factual or legal basis for a claim was not reasonably available to counsel or that

some interference by officials, made compliance impracticable, would

constitute cause.” Murray v. Carrier, 477 U.S. 478, 488 (1986) (quotation

omitted). Vargas-Soto contends there was a legal impediment that prevented

him from timely raising his vagueness claim on direct review—namely, that

the Supreme Court had not yet held that his vagueness claim was a winner.

We first detail (1) when a movant may rely on a legal impediment to

show cause. We then explain (2) nothing impeded Vargas-Soto from raising

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his vagueness claim before Johnson or Dimaya. We last reject (3) Vargas-

Soto’s remaining counterarguments.

1.

The possibility that a legal impediment may qualify as cause originated

in the pre-AEDPA case of Reed v. Ross, 468 U.S. 1 (1984). There, the

Supreme Court “h[e]ld that where a constitutional claim is so novel that its

legal basis is not reasonably available to counsel, a defendant has cause.” Id.

at 16.

Later Supreme Court decisions have substantially limited that

holding. Take Smith v. Murray, 477 U.S. 527 (1986). In that case, the Court

emphasized that “perceived futility alone cannot constitute” a legal

impediment. Id. at 535 (quotation omitted). That is, a prisoner can’t fail to

raise an argument at time X and then say at later time Y, “my argument

would have been futile at time X, so I have cause for the default.” Why?

Because, the Supreme Court explained, if the prisoner had raised the

argument at time X, “a state [or federal] court may [have] decide[d], upon

reflection, that the contention [wa]s valid.” Ibid. (quotation omitted). And

it’s that “very prospect” of a change in the law “that undergirds the rule”

requiring prisoners to raise their claims even when they appear futile under

then-current law. Ibid. The Court also limited Reed to establish merely this:

“[T]he question is not whether subsequent legal developments have made

counsel’s task easier, but whether at the time of the default the claim was

‘available’ at all.” Id. at 537.

Also take Bousley v. United States, 523 U.S. 614 (1998). There, the

Court reaffirmed that “where the basis of a claim is available, and other

defense counsel have perceived and litigated that claim,” the claim is not

novel. Id. at 623 n.2 (quotation omitted). It similarly reaffirmed that “futility

cannot constitute cause.” Id. at 623 (quotation omitted).

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Taken together, Supreme Court precedent holds that a prisoner

cannot invoke “novelty” as cause for a default where he was legally able to

make the putatively novel argument. We therefore agree with our sister

circuits that a claim is not “novel” where a prisoner could (or where other

prisoners did in fact) raise it at time X. See Anderson v. Kelley, 938 F.3d 949,

962 (8th Cir. 2019) (“[I]f the tools were available for a petitioner to construct

the legal argument at the time of the state appeals process, then the claim

cannot be said to be so novel as to constitute cause for failing to raise it

earlier.” (quotation omitted)); Gatewood v. United States, 979 F.3d 391, 395

(6th Cir. 2020) (“If another litigant pressed the claim, the tools required to

conceive it must have existed.”); Granda v. United States, 990 F.3d 1272,

1287 (11th Cir. 2021) (“[E]ven if others have not been raising a claim, the

claim may still be unnovel if a review of the historical roots and development

of the general issue involved indicate that petitioners did not lack the tools to

construct their constitutional claim.” (quotation omitted)).

2.

Vargas-Soto contends that he had cause for not raising his vagueness

claim on direct appeal: He did not then have the benefit of Johnson and

Dimaya. Those decisions were so pathbreaking, Vargas-Soto contends, that

he could not reasonably have anticipated them and hence could not have

preserved his vagueness claim without them. He might be right that Johnson

and Dimaya were bolts from the blue. But Vargas-Soto is still wrong that their

absence constituted cause. That’s because, even without them, Vargas-Soto

undisputedly had the tools for timely raising his vagueness claim. That’s for

three reasons.

First, the Supreme Court has recognized that criminal statutes are

subject to vagueness challenges since at least 1954. See United States v.

Harriss, 347 U.S. 612, 617 (1954). And the Supreme Court has recognized

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vagueness challenges to sentencing provisions since at least 1979. See United

States v. Batchelder, 442 U.S. 114, 123 (1979) (“So too, vague sentencing

provisions may pose constitutional questions if they do not state with

sufficient clarity the consequences of violating a given criminal statute.”).

These decisions show that Vargas-Soto had the tools he needed to raise a

vagueness challenge between 2011 (when he was convicted) and 2013 (when

his conviction became final on direct appeal).

Second, other defendants were raising such claims before Vargas-Soto

ever set foot in federal court. We’ve previously held that other defendants’

claims suffice to show that a claim was not “novel.” See Bates v. Blackburn,

805 F.2d 569, 576–77 (5th Cir. 1986). The fact that the Federal Public

Defender for the Western District of Texas had squarely attacked the INA’s

residual clause as unconstitutionally vague three years before Vargas-Soto’s

sentencing further establishes that this claim was not novel. See United States

v. Nevarez-Puentes, 278 F. App’x 429, 430 (5th Cir. 2008) (per curiam).

Third, other defendants were raising vagueness challenges to other

similarly worded statutes before Vargas-Soto’s sentencing. For example, the

Supreme Court decided James in 2007. There, Justice Scalia argued at length

that ACCA’s materially identical residual clause was unconstitutionally

vague. 550 U.S. at 214–31 (Scalia, J., dissenting). And in June 2011, the Court

decided Sykes, where the majority rejected the argument that the residual

clause was unconstitutionally vague and where Justice Scalia expanded his

void-for-vagueness argument. See 564 U.S. at 15–16 (majority op.); id. at 28–

35 (Scalia, J., dissenting). These decisions provided Vargas-Soto the tools

needed to raise his vagueness claim.

Our sister circuits reinforce this conclusion. They’ve rejected the idea

that prisoners always had cause for defaulting their vagueness claims before

Johnson and Davis. See, e.g., Granda, 990 F.3d at 1285–88 (Davis); Herron v.

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United States, No. 21-10212, 2022 WL 987423, at *2–3 (11th Cir. Apr. 1,

2022) (per curiam) (Davis); Gatewood, 979 F.3d at 394–98 (Johnson). We see

no reason to treat Vargas-Soto’s claim differently.

3.

The crux of Vargas-Soto’s counterargument is that we must rigidly

apply Reed v. Ross. But that decision does nothing to help Vargas-Soto in light

of (a) AEDPA, (b) precedent, and (c) practice.

a.

Start with AEDPA. That landmark statute tells us when a prisoner can

invoke a novel precedent to seek postconviction relief. It says that a prisoner

can file a second or successive request for relief when he can point to “a new

rule of constitutional law, made retroactive to cases on collateral review by

the Supreme Court, that was previously unavailable.” 28 U.S.C.

§ 2255(h)(2). That statutory text, in turn, evokes the new-rule-retroactivity

paradigm of Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288 (1989). Generally, Supreme Court

decisions are not retroactive under Teague and § 2255(h)(2). See, e.g.,

Edwards, 141 S. Ct. at 1555 (“[T]he Court has repeatedly stated that new

rules of criminal procedure ordinarily do not apply retroactively on federal

collateral review.”). Thus, under AEDPA and Teague, new or novel legal

rules generally do not help prisoners file new requests for postconviction

relief.

Reed v. Ross predates AEDPA and Teague and says the opposite. That

decision posits three circumstances in which a postconviction litigant might

invoke a “novel” Supreme Court decision: the Supreme Court explicitly

overrules one of its precedents; the Supreme Court overturns a longstanding

and widespread practice that enjoyed widespread approval in the inferior

courts; and the Supreme Court disapproves a practice that it arguably

sanctioned in prior cases. 468 U.S. at 17–18. All sorts of Supreme Court

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decisions do these things. In fact, it’s difficult to imagine how a prisoner

could win a case in the Supreme Court and not satisfy at least one of the Reed

categories for “novelty.” Thus, under Vargas-Soto’s expansive reading of

Reed v. Ross, new or novel legal rules generally do apply retroactively and help

prisoners file new requests for postconviction relief. See id. at 17 (framing its

holding in terms of “retroactiv[ity]”). That is tough to square with Teague

and Congress’s post-Reed decision in AEDPA to limit the retroactive

application of novel legal rules.

Vargas-Soto’s understanding of Reed v. Ross also would generate

highly anomalous results for state prisoners subject to AEDPA. (Recall that

Ross himself was a state prisoner, and Reed’s holding purports to apply

equally to both state and federal prisoners who default their claims.) After

AEDPA, the state prisoner who raises a claim and loses it will confront the

formidable task of overcoming the relitigation bar, 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d),

whereas the state prisoner who defaults the claim can later invoke Reed to

capitalize on a third prisoner’s success in litigating (and winning) it. That

makes the sandbagging state prisoner substantially better off than the diligent

one. But see Lucio v. Lumpkin, 987 F.3d 451, 474–76 (5th Cir. 2021) (en banc)

(plurality op.) (emphasizing AEDPA’s anti-sandbagging principle). And it

contravenes Congress’s judgment that prisoners cannot attack state court

decisions using new rules of constitutional law that the state courts could not

have foreseen. See, e.g., Greene v. Fisher, 565 U.S. 34, 38–41 (2011) (holding

later-decided Supreme Court decisions cannot constitute “clearly

established law” under § 2254(d), and that state court decisions instead must

be reviewed only under precedent that existed at the time).

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AEDPA—no less than other rules governing postconviction

litigation5—thus reflects the modern rule that new or novel legal decisions

generally cannot be used to win postconviction relief. As the Supreme Court

recently reminded us, the whole point of AEDPA is to “make[] winning

habeas relief more difficult.” Davenport, 142 S. Ct. at 1526; see also Shinn v.

Ramirez, --- S. Ct. ---, --- (2022) (“[G]iven our frequent recognition that

AEDPA limited rather than expanded the availability of habeas relief[,] it is

implausible that, without saying so, Congress intended this Court to

liberalize the availability of habeas relief generally, or access to federal

factfinding specifically.” (quotation omitted)).6 Vargas-Soto therefore

cannot invoke Reed to make the task easier.

5

Consider the well-settled rule that the cause-and-prejudice standard “imposes a

significantly higher hurdle than the plain error standard that governs direct appeals.”

United States v. Reece, 938 F.3d 630, 634 n.3 (5th Cir. 2019) (quotation omitted); see also

Brannigan v. United States, 249 F.3d 584, 587 (7th Cir. 2001) (explaining that establishing

cause and prejudice “is more difficult than establishing ‘plain error’” (quoting Frady, 456

U.S. at 164)). And futility is not an excuse in the plain-error context. See Greer v. United

States, 141 S. Ct. 2090, 2099 (2021) (A “futility exception lacks any support in the text of

the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure or in [Supreme Court] precedents. . . . Rule 51’s

focus on a party’s opportunity to object—rather than a party’s likelihood of prevailing on the

objection—also undercuts Gary’s proposed futility exception.”). Thus, Vargas-Soto

would have us hold that futility can establish cause for a default (the purportedly higher

standard) but cannot establish plain error (the purportedly lower standard). That’s

obviously backwards.

6

Brown v. Davenport and Shinn v. Ramirez each involved a state prisoner

collaterally attacking his sentence in a federal habeas petition under the strictures of 28

U.S.C. § 2254, as amended by AEDPA. Vargas-Soto is obviously a federal prisoner, and his

§ 2255 motion is not strictly speaking a habeas petition. See United States v. Cardenas, 13

F.4th 380, 384 n.* (5th Cir. 2021) (“Section 2255 is a statutory substitute for habeas

corpus.” (citing United States v. Hayman, 342 U.S. 205, 219 (1952))). We nonetheless hold

that AEDPA amended § 2255, no less than it amended § 2254, to make winning

postconviction relief more difficult. There is nothing remarkable about that. See Frady, 456

U.S. at 164–68 (applying procedural default in the § 2255 context and concluding that there

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b.

Next, precedent. The first two Reed categories—the ones Vargas-Soto

relies on—were dicta. See Reed, 468 U.S. at 17 (listing the first two categories

of novelty as (1) a Supreme Court decision that overturns a Supreme Court

precedent and (2) a Supreme Court decision that overturns a widespread

lower-court practice); id. at 18 (“This case is covered by the third

category.”). The Supreme Court has never relied on the first two categories

to find cause and hasn’t found cause based on the third category since Reed.

The first two categories thus have “no binding force.” Wright v. Spaulding,

939 F.3d 695, 701 (6th Cir. 2019) (Thapar, J.); see also Morrow v. Meachum,

917 F.3d 870, 875 (5th Cir. 2019) (“Dictum is not law.”); Bryan A.

Garner, et al., The Law of Judicial Precedent 44 (2016)

(explaining that dictum does not “bind future courts” and is “not law per

se”).

Plus, we must read Reed in light of later Supreme Court precedent.

Bousley and Murray squarely held that futile claims are not novel. These

holdings unraveled Reed’s first two categories because their entire premise is

futility. Bousley also narrowed Reed by replacing the tri-category framework

with a single question of whether the “claim is so novel that its legal basis is

not reasonably available to counsel.” 523 U.S. at 622. So the best

understanding of Reed is the one the Court itself adopted in narrowing it. It is

thus unsurprising that our sister circuits understand Bousley and Murray to

have quashed Reed’s novelty categories. See, e.g., Gatewood, 979 F.3d at 395

(“Subsequent case law, however, has limited the breadth of Reed’s

holding.”); Daniels v. United States, 254 F.3d 1180, 1191 (10th Cir. 2001) (en

is “no basis for affording federal prisoners a preferred status when they seek postconviction

relief”).

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banc) (explaining that the Court later “narrowed the broad Reed ‘novelty’

test in Bousley”); Simpson v. Matesanz, 175 F.3d 200, 212 (1st Cir. 1999)

(questioning whether “the familiar Reed unavailability standard is still good

law” after Bousley).

Contrary to Vargas-Soto’s suggestion, Bousley isn’t cabined to

statutory matters. It was Reed (not Bousley) that cabined itself to the specific

situation before it. See Reed, 468 U.S. at 17 (“Although the question whether

an attorney has a reasonable basis upon which to develop a legal theory may

arise in a variety of contexts, we confine our attention to the specific situation

presented here: one in which this Court has articulated a constitutional

principle that had not been previously recognized but which is held to have

retroactive application.” (quotation omitted)). Plus, Bousley announced its

futility rule as a holding and without qualification, while Reed’s categories

were both dicta and qualified. See United States v. Pollard, 20 F.4th 1252, 1261

(9th Cir. 2021) (Nelson, J., concurring) (“Bousley was decided after Reed, and

Bousley’s futility rule was dispositive rather than dicta. Bousley made no

exception for claims that received consistent negative treatment in the

courts.”).

c.

Last, practice. Defense counsel “routinely raise arguments to

preserve them for further review despite binding authority to the contrary.”

United States v. Scruggs, 714 F.3d 258, 264 (5th Cir. 2013); see also Pollard, 20

F.4th at 1262 (Nelson, J., concurring) (“Competent defense counsel

regularly preserve arguments for future appeal. Defense counsel are trusted

with the great responsibility of using their discretion to bring the best

arguments reasonably available.”). This entire enterprise would be pointless

if futility constituted cause. And it would create a system of litigation

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freeriding, under which prisoners who do not make arguments get a free ride

from those who do.

Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224 (1998), illustrates the

point. There, the Court held that a provision that “simply authorizes a court

to increase the sentence for a recidivist” is a “penalty” and not a separate

crime. See id. at 226–27. The consequence is that the Government doesn’t

have to submit to a jury a sentencing enhancement that turns on a

defendant’s prior criminal conviction. See ibid. A couple years later, the

Supreme Court decided Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000). In that

case, the Court held that “any fact that increases the penalty for a crime

beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and

proved beyond a reasonable doubt.” Id. at 490. But the Apprendi Court

maintained the significant exception announced in Almendarez-Torres, even

though the majority acknowledged the decision was arguably wrong. As the

Apprendi Court put it:

Even though it is arguable that Almendarez-Torres was

incorrectly decided, and that a logical application of our

reasoning today should apply if the recidivist issue were

contested, Apprendi does not contest the decision’s validity

and we need not revisit it for purposes of our decision today to

treat the case as a narrow exception to the general rule we

recalled at the outset. Given its unique facts, it surely does not

warrant rejection of the otherwise uniform course of decision

during the entire history of our jurisprudence.

Id. at 489–90 (quotation omitted).

Today, Almendarez-Torres is still seriously questioned. Compare

Rangel-Reyes v. United States, 547 U.S. 1200, 1200 (2006) (Thomas, J.,

dissenting from the denial of certiorari) (stating that “it has long been clear

that a majority of this Court now rejects that exception”), with ibid.

(statement of Stevens, J.) (explaining that although he “continue[s] to

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believe that Almendarez-Torres . . . was wrongly decided, that is not a

sufficient reason for revisiting the issue”). For this reason, we regularly get

direct appeals seeking to preserve Almendarez-Torres challenges. See, e.g.,

United States v. Garza-De La Cruz, 16 F.4th 1213 (5th Cir. 2021) (per

curiam). “As a result, we routinely issue orders . . . summarily denying a

claim on the ground that it is foreclosed by Almendarez-Torres.” Id. at 1214

(concurring op.). And there’s nothing wrong with “preserving one’s rights

just in case,” especially when jurists recognize the potential claim and when

it’s well-established that failure to preserve the claim risks forfeiture of it. Id.

at 1215.

The same was true with vagueness arguments between 2011 and 2013.

The Supreme Court recognized potential vagueness challenges in the 1950s

and even applied those vagueness principles to residual clauses in federal

sentencing statutes in James (2007) and Sykes (2011). Here, as with

Almendarez-Torres, parties should’ve “litigate[d] in anticipation of . . . legal

change.” Garza-De La Cruz, 16 F.4th at 1215 (concurring op.) (quotation

omitted). Vargas-Soto’s contrary understanding of cause would mean that

we should treat prisoners who raise the challenge the same as those that

don’t. We reject that result.

B.

Finally, we turn to actual innocence. We hold (1) Supreme Court

precedent forecloses Vargas-Soto’s attempt to use actual innocence as an

escape route for his procedural default. Then we reject (2) Vargas-Soto’s

reliance on our decision in United States v. Reece, 938 F.3d 630 (5th Cir. 2019).

1.

First, Supreme Court precedent. The Supreme Court has stressed

that “‘actual innocence’ means factual innocence, not mere legal

insufficiency.” Bousley, 523 U.S. at 623; see also Sawyer v. Whitley, 505 U.S.

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333, 339 (1992). In other words, the movant must show, by the required level

of convincingness, that “no reasonable juror would have convicted him” of

the substantive offense. Bousley, 523 U.S. at 623 (quotation omitted).

The Supreme Court’s decisions addressing actual innocence

presuppose that the prisoner has new evidence that did not exist at the time

of conviction and sentencing. See, e.g., Schlup v. Delo, 513 U.S. 298, 316 (1995)

(“Without any new evidence of innocence, even the existence of a concededly

meritorious constitutional violation is not in itself sufficient to establish a

miscarriage of justice that would allow a habeas court to reach the merits of a

barred claim.” (emphasis added)); McQuiggin v. Perkins, 569 U.S. 383, 394–

95 (2013) (“The miscarriage of justice exception, we underscore, applies to

a severely confined category: cases in which new evidence shows it is more likely

than not that no reasonable juror would have convicted the petitioner.”

(emphases added) (quotation omitted)).7 And for good reason: If the prisoner

does not present new evidence, then the prisoner either is asking courts to

usurp the jury’s function by considering the same evidence the jury did or is

making purely legal arguments.

Here, Vargas-Soto does not argue factual innocence of the substantive

crime—i.e., illegal reentry under 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a). Instead, he argues that

none of his prior convictions qualify for the sentencing enhancement for an

“aggravated felony” under § 1326(b)(2). That argument is exclusively legal.

7

See also, e.g., Calderon v. Thompson, 523 U.S. 538, 559 (1998) (“To be credible, a

claim of actual innocence must be based on reliable evidence not presented at trial. . . . If

the petitioner asserts his actual innocence of the underlying crime, he must show it is more

likely than not that no reasonable juror would have convicted him in light of the new evidence

presented in his habeas petition.” (emphasis added) (quotation omitted)); House v. Bell, 547

U.S. 518, 538 (2006) (“A petitioner’s burden at the gateway stage is to demonstrate that

more likely than not, in light of the new evidence, no reasonable juror would find him guilty

beyond a reasonable doubt—or, to remove the double negative, that more likely than not

any reasonable juror would have reasonable doubt.” (emphasis added)).

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And that’s not good enough. To conclude otherwise “would mean that

actual innocence amounts to little more than what is already required to show

prejudice.” Sawyer, 505 U.S. at 345 (quotation omitted). Vargas-Soto’s

failure to present new evidence confirms that he isn’t asserting factual

innocence but rather legal innocence.

2.

Vargas-Soto’s main counterargument hinges not on Supreme Court

precedent but rather on ours. Specifically, he says he can show actual

innocence under Reece. But there are at least two problems with that.

First, Reece is best understood as merely accepting the Government’s

concession that the movant there was actually innocent, rather than deciding

the actual-innocence issue. See 938 F.3d at 634 n.3 (“The government’s brief

recognizes as much.”). In other words, Reece merely signaled what the proper

result should be based on precedent but did not “consider and consciously

decide” the actual-innocence issue. Wright, 939 F.3d at 704. “It would be at

least imprudent, and maybe improper, to make binding precedent out of a

court’s simple acquiescence in the parties’ concessions and assumptions.”

Ibid. Thus, “[o]ur hands are not tied in a later case just because, in an earlier

one, a party conceded an issue and the panel took that concession at face

value.” Ibid.

Second, even if Reece decided actual innocence, the offense in Reece

critically differs from the one here. In Reece, the movant was convicted of,

among other things, using and carrying a firearm during a “crime of

violence” under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(3). But the Supreme Court later held

that § 924(c)(3)’s residual clause defining “crime of violence” was

unconstitutionally vague. See Davis, 139 S. Ct. at 2336. In a footnote, we

suggested that the movant established actual innocence of the substantive

offense. Reece, 938 F.3d at 634 n.3. Specifically, we suggested that “if Reece’s

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convictions were based on the definition of [crime of violence] articulated in

§ 924(c)(3)(B), then he would be actually innocent of those charges” because

his conviction required a “predicate” crime of violence. Ibid. (emphasis

added). Put differently, Reece was actually innocent of the substantive

offense charged because his conviction—not the particular length of his

sentence—turned on the determination that he had committed a “crime of

violence” under the void residual clause.

By contrast, Vargas-Soto was convicted of the substantive offense of

illegal reentry as proscribed under 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a), and he does not

challenge that conviction. Instead, he argues that he’s actually innocent of

his enhanced sentence under § 1326(b) for having a prior conviction for an

“aggravated felony.” But § 1326(b) “does not define a separate crime”; it’s

“a penalty provision, which simply authorizes a court to increase the

sentence for a recidivist.” Almendarez-Torres, 523 U.S. at 226. So Vargas-

Soto does not claim factual innocence of his conviction (§ 1326(a)) but makes

a legal argument that he doesn’t qualify for the sentencing enhancement

(§ 1326(b)). That’s at best legal innocence—not factual innocence.

Our sister circuits confirm this conclusion. They’ve similarly

concluded that factual innocence isn’t established when a sentencing

enhancement—rather than the substantive offense—is at issue. See, e.g.,

McKay v. United States, 657 F.3d 1190, 1199 (11th Cir. 2011) (“We thus

decline to extend the actual innocence of sentence exception to claims of legal

innocence of a predicate offense justifying an enhanced sentence.”); United

States v. Pettiford, 612 F.3d 270, 284 (4th Cir. 2010) (“Rather, he makes the

legal argument that this conviction should not have been classified as a

‘violent felony’ under the ACCA. This argument . . . is not cognizable as a

claim of actual innocence. . . . [A]ctual innocence applies in the context of

habitual offender provisions only where the challenge to eligibility stems

from factual innocence of the predicate crimes, and not from the legal

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classification of the predicate crimes.” (quotation omitted)); Hope v. United

States, 108 F.3d 119, 120 (7th Cir. 1997) (“We conclude that a successive

motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 . . . may not be filed on the basis of newly

discovered evidence unless the motion challenges the conviction and not

merely the sentence.”).

* * *

Vargas-Soto failed to preserve his void-for-vagueness claim. So he

procedurally defaulted it. And there’s no persuasive reason to excuse that

default. We therefore find no reversible error in the district court’s judgment.

AFFIRMED.

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W. Eugene Davis, Circuit Judge, dissenting:

I disagree with the majority that Vargas-Soto failed to show “cause”

and “prejudice” that excuse his procedural default. When Vargas-Soto was

sentenced in 2011, and during his direct appeal through 2013, the

constitutional void-for-vagueness claim he now raises was foreclosed by the

Supreme Court in James v. United States, a 2007 decision.1 It was not until

2015 that the Supreme Court in United States v. Johnson overruled James and

decided the constitutional issue favorably to Vargas-Soto.2 Until the Court in

Johnson overruled the contrary holding in James, the constitutional argument

Vargas-Soto raises in his motion to vacate under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 was

“novel.” While James remained effective, Vargas-Soto’s claim was not

“reasonably available.”

Vargas-Soto therefore has cause for his failure to raise the issue in his

underlying proceedings. Because Vargas-Soto has obviously suffered

prejudice,3 I would reach the merits of his claim and grant him relief under

§ 2255.4 Therefore, I respectfully dissent.

1

550 U.S. 192, 210 n.6 (2007).

2

576 U.S. 591, 606 (2015).

3

Vargas-Soto was sentenced to 15-years imprisonment under 8 U.S.C.

§ 1326(b)(2) based on his prior conviction for an “aggravated felony,” namely

manslaughter, a “crime of violence” under 18 U.S.C. § 16(b). See 8 U.S.C.

§ 1101(a)(43)(F). Without the application of § 1326(b)(2)’s sentencing enhancement,

Vargas-Soto was subject to a maximum term of 10-years imprisonment under § 1326(b)(1).

The Government does not dispute that a sentence exceeding the statutory maximum by

five years qualifies as actual prejudice.

4

The prior manslaughter conviction Vargas-Soto’s enhanced sentence was based

on does not qualify under § 16(a)’s elements clause under the Supreme Court’s recent

decision in Borden v. United States, 141 S. Ct. 1817, 1825 (2021) (plurality opinion) (holding

that that an offense involving “reckless conduct” does not satisfy the elements clause’s

definition of “an offense requiring ‘the use of force against the person of another’”); see

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I.

A number of provisions in the federal criminal statutes provide for a

sentencing enhancement based on a defendant’s prior conviction for, e.g., a

“crime of violence.”5 One way for a crime to fall within this definition is to

meet the terms of the statutes’ substantially identical “residual clauses.” 6

For years, including in Vargas-Soto’s case, courts enhanced sentences by

applying the residual clauses without question. 7 Notably, before Vargas-

Soto’s sentencing and direct appeal in 2011, the Supreme Court expressly

held in James that one of these residual clauses, 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B) in

the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”), did not raise a constitutional

void-for-vagueness problem.8

However, in 2015, in Johnson, the Court overruled James and

recognized that a residual clause is void-for-vagueness and constitutionally

infirm when it (1) “ties the judicial assessment of risk to a judicially imagined

‘ordinary case’ of a crime, not to real-world facts or statutory elements,” and

(2) “leaves uncertainty about how much risk it takes for a crime to qualify as

a violent felony.”9 The major dispute in this case is whether the void-for-

vagueness argument was “novel” at the time of Vargas-Soto’s procedural

default. The novelty inquiry turns on whether the “legal basis” for Vargas-

Soto’s claim—that, under Johnson and its progeny, 18 U.S.C. § 16(b) is void-

also id. at 1835 (Thomas, J., concurring) (“A crime that can be committed through mere

recklessness does not have as an element the ‘use of physical force.’”).

5

18 U.S.C. § 16.

6

Id. § 16(b).

7

See United States v. Vargas-Soto, 700 F.3d 180, 182–84 (5th Cir. 2012).

8

550 U.S. at 210 n.6.

9

576 U.S. at 597–98.

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for-vagueness—was “reasonably available.”10 If it was not, then Vargas-Soto

has established cause for his procedural default.11

A.

We have clear direction from the Supreme Court on what “novelty”

means in this context. In Reed v. Ross, the Court held, for the first time, that

cause for a procedural default exists when the defaulted claim is “novel.”12

The Court described three non-exhaustive situations in which a

constitutional claim is sufficiently novel:

First, a decision of this Court may explicitly overrule one of our

precedents. Second, a decision may overturn a longstanding

and widespread practice to which this Court has not spoken,

but which a near-unanimous body of lower court authority has

expressly approved. And, finally, a decision may disapprove a

practice this Court arguably has sanctioned in prior cases.13

Because Johnson expressly overruled James,14 the first category squarely fits

this case, and we need look no further for a definition of novelty.

Contrary to the majority’s conclusion, every circuit court, seven total,

to consider whether Johnson is sufficiently novel to establish cause have held,

under Reed, that it is. The First, Sixth, Seventh, and Tenth Circuits have

10

Bousley v. United States, 523 U.S. 614, 622 (quoting Reed v. Ross, 468 U.S. 1, 16

(1984)) (emphasis added).

11

Id.

12

468 U.S. at 16.

13

Id. at 17.

14

576 U.S. at 606.

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issued precedential opinions on the issue.15 The Fourth, Ninth, and Eleventh

Circuits have each decided the issue in non-precedential opinions.16

The lone outlier is the Eleventh Circuit’s opinion in Granda v. United

States.17 But that court relied on the fact that the movant, Carlos Granda,

challenged a sentencing enhancement under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(3)(B)’s

residual clause (the clause discussed in United States v. Davis18), rather than

18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)’s (the clause discussed in Johnson). Even so, the

Granda court recognized the validity of Reed, but found the first category

15

See Lassend v. United States, 898 F.3d 115, 122–23 (1st Cir. 2018) (“Reed stated

that, where the Supreme Court explicitly overrules one of its own precedents, . . . the failure

of a defendant’s attorney to have pressed such a claim . . . is sufficiently excusable to satisfy

the cause requirement. That is what happened here.” (internal quotation marks, brackets,

and citations omitted)); Raines v. United States, 898 F.3d 680, 687 (6th Cir. 2018) and

Gatewood v. United States, 979 F.3d 391, 396 (6th Cir. 2020) (construing Raines as holding

that Johnson was “actually futile,” thereby satisfying Reed’s first category), cert. denied, 141

S. Ct. 2798 (2021); Cross v. United States, 892 F.3d 288, 296 (7th Cir. 2018) (“We join the

Tenth Circuit in excusing, under Reed’s first category, the petitioners’ failure to challenge

the residual clause prior to Johnson.”); United States v. Snyder, 871 F.3d 1122, 1127–28

(10th Cir. 2017) (“We therefore conclude that the Johnson claim was not reasonably

available to Snyder at the time of his direct appeal, and that this is sufficient to establish

cause.”).

16

United States v. Bennerman, 785 F. App’x 958, 963 (4th Cir. 2019) (concluding

that the movant’s Johnson argument was not procedurally defaulted because it “wasn’t

reasonably available before the change in law wrought by Johnson” and adopting the

approach taken by the First, Seventh, and Tenth Circuits in, respectively, Lassend, Cross,

and Snyder); Ezell v. United States, 743 F. App’x 784, 785 (9th Cir. 2018) (“Ezell had cause

not to challenge because at that time, Supreme Court precedent foreclosed the argument

that the residual clause of 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii) was unconstitutionally vague.”

(footnote omitted)); Rose v. United States, 738 F. App’x 617, 626 (11th Cir. 2018) (“Under

Reed, Mr. Rose has shown cause for failing to assert a vagueness challenge to the ACCA’s

residual clause on direct appeal.”).

17

990 F.3d 1272 (11th Cir. 2021). The Eleventh Circuit followed Granda in another

recent decision, Herron v. United States, No. 21-10212, 2022 WL 987423, at *2 (11th Cir.

Apr. 1, 2022).

18

139 S. Ct. 2319 (2019).

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inapplicable because, “[u]nlike the Johnson ACCA decision, Davis did not

overrule any prior Supreme Court precedents holding that the § 924(c)

clause was not unconstitutionally vague.”19 That overly formalistic

distinction between “Johnson claims,” which involve § 924(e)(2)(B), and

“Davis claims,” which involve § 924(c)(3)(B), is foreclosed by our

precedent,20 something the majority recognizes. When the Eleventh Circuit

considered cause in the context of a Johnson claim, it held—in accord with

every other circuit—that the claim was novel under Reed.21

Reed’s first category is plainly applicable and should resolve this case.

The logic behind Reed, as seven circuit courts have recognized, remains

sound: a claim is not “reasonably available” when the Supreme Court bars

it. When the Supreme Court forecloses a constitutional claim, every court in

the nation, including the High Court, is bound to reject it. To say that such

claims are “reasonably available” defies logic. I would join our sister circuits,

and hold that, pre-Johnson, a void-for-vagueness challenge to a sentencing

provision’s residual clause was novel.

The majority avoids Reed by characterizing its first two categories of

novel claims as mere dicta. According to the majority, Reed’s first two

19

Granda, 990 F.3d at 1287.

20

See United States v. Castro, 30 F.4th 240, 247 (5th Cir. 2022). The Supreme

Court has also made clear that Johnson’s rule controls the analysis for each of the residual

clauses, which are substantially identical. Dimaya, 138 S. Ct. at 1213-16 (noting that

“Johnson is a straightforward decision [about § 924(e)(2)(B)’s residual clause] with equally

straightforward application [to § 16(b)’s residual clause]” and holding that § 16(b) is

unconstitutionally vague because it shares the same flaws as § 924(e)(2)(B)); see also Davis,

139 S. Ct. at 2326–27 (expanding Johnson’s application to § 924(c)(3)(B) because Johnson

and Dimaya “teach that the imposition of criminal punishment can’t be made to depend

on a judge’s estimation of the degree of risk posed by a crime’s imagined ‘ordinary case,’”

and because § 924(c)(3)(B) contains the same flaws as the other residual clauses).

21

Rose, 738 F. App’x at 626.

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categories have been rendered inapplicable based on (1) the Antiterrorism

and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”), (2) later precedent, and

(3) practice. None of these arguments stand up to scrutiny.

1.

The majority’s position that AEDPA somehow affects the “cause”

standard for granting habeas relief is baffling. AEDPA provides the rule for

the circumstances that may allow a prisoner to file a “second or successive”

§ 2255 motion to vacate.22 The “second or successive” standard is

independent from the common law procedural default doctrine. 23 If the

majority suggests that the AEDPA standard for filing a successive motion

also governs the “cause” standard for a procedural default, Vargas-Soto

meets that standard. In Welch v. United States, the Court held that “Johnson

is . . . a substantive decision and so has retroactive effect under Teague [v.

Lane] in cases on collateral review.”24

Neither the statute nor Teague suggests that this Court should not

follow the Reed standard in determining what is a “new” or “novel” rule

sufficient to establish cause for a procedural default. Regarding Reed’s first

category—the most pertinent one in this case—the Supreme Court has

continued to recognize that a rule is “new” when the Court overrules an

22

28 U.S.C. § 2255(h)(2).

23

B. Means, Federal Habeas Manual § 9B:3 (2017) (“AEDPA did not

change the application of pre-AEDPA procedural default principles.”); see also Lee

Kovarsky, AEDPA Wrecks: Comity, Finality, and Federalism, 82 Tul. L. Rev. 443, 450

(2007) (“[AEDPA] did little to alter existing [procedural] default doctrine.”).

24

578 U.S. 120, 130 (2016). AEDPA allows a petitioner to file a successive § 2255

motion if it is based on a “new rule of constitutional law, made retroactive to cases on

collateral review by the Supreme Court, that was previously unavailable.” 28 U.S.C. §

2255(h)(2).

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earlier decision in announcing the rule. 25 In fact, the Court has stated that

“[t]he starkest example of a decision announcing a new rule is a decision that

overrules an earlier case.”26 And, that is consistent with Reed, where the

Court used the term “new” interchangeably with the term “novel.” 27

2.

Next, the majority argues that precedent requires us to limit Reed.

This argument is also confounding. The express holding in Reed was that

cause for a procedural default exists when “a constitutional claim is so novel

that its legal basis is not reasonably available to counsel.”28 The majority

eviscerates that holding when it instead imposes the nigh-insurmountable

requirement that “a prisoner cannot invoke ‘novelty’ as cause for a default

where he was legally able to make the putatively novel argument.” The

majority’s decision to dramatically increase the burden for establishing cause

contradicts not only Reed, but also the later cases the majority relies on.

The majority points to two cases, Smith v. Murray29 and Bousley v.

United States.30 In its view, these cases displace Reed’s novelty analysis and

stand for the proposition that “futile claims are not novel.” But the Supreme

Court has never held that a finding of futility will preclude a finding of

novelty. To the contrary, the Court has consistently treated the novelty issue

25

Edwards v. Vannoy, 141 S. Ct. 1547, 1555 (2021) (citing Whorton v. Bockting, 549

U.S. 406, 416 (2007)).

26

Id.

27

468 U.S. at 17.

28

468 U.S. at 16 (emphasis added).

29

477 U.S. 527 (1986).

30

523 U.S. at 622.

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as a separate question from futility.31 In Murray, the Court set forth the rule

that “perceived futility alone cannot constitute cause.”32 And in Bousley, the

Court held that “futility cannot constitute cause if it means simply that a

claim was unacceptable to that particular court at that particular time.”33

Read in context, Bousley was referring to situations in which a claim is

apparently futile because a lower court’s precedent bars it. 34 The majority

ignores these self-evident limits on the rule that, in general, futility is not

enough to show cause.

Properly construed, Murray and Bousley reflect that a futile claim may

be the basis for cause, as long as it is sufficiently novel. Reed remains the best

guidance on how to define novelty, and neither Murray nor Bousley dealt with

a situation in which the Supreme Court overturned its own precedent. Rather

than imposing the majority’s extraordinary legally-able-to-make standard,

31

Murray, 477 U.S. at 535–36; Bousley, 523 U.S. at 622–23.

32

477 U.S. at 535 (quoting Engle v. Isaac, 456 U.S. 107, 130 & n.36 (1982))

(emphasis added).

33

523 U.S. at 623 (emphasis added).

34

The rule of law at issue in Bousley was that, to show “use” of a firearm under 18

U.S.C. § 924(c)(1), the Government must show “active employment of the firearm.” 523

U.S. at 616 (quoting Bailey v. United States, 516 U.S. 137, 144 (1995)). Before Bailey v.

United States, the Eighth Circuit—in which the petitioner’s underlying proceedings took

place—held that “use” included the mere “presence and availability” of a firearm in

relation to a drug trafficking offense. See, e.g., United States v. Horne, 4 F.3d 579, 587 (8th

Cir. 1993). Thus, when his collateral attack reached the Supreme Court, the petitioner

argued it would have been futile to raise these claims in the Eighth Circuit. Bousley v. Brooks,

1997 WL 728537 (U.S.), 32, 35 (U.S. Pet. Brief, 1997) (“His attorney’s advice that it was

futile to appeal from the guilty plea was correct, because Eighth Circuit case law was so well

established.”).

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both Murray and Bousley reaffirm that cause exists “where a constitutional

claim is so novel that its legal basis is not reasonably available to counsel.”35

The Sixth Circuit in Gatewood v. United States discussed at length the

distinction between Reed on one hand and Murray and Bousley on the other.36

That court concluded that, under Reed, “‘actual futility,’ caused by the

Supreme Court’s ruling on an issue, can constitute cause.”37 However,

under Murray and Bousley, “‘futility cannot be cause’ . . . where the source

of the ‘perceived futility’ is adverse state or lower court precedent.” 38

Applying Reed’s first category, the Sixth Circuit held that a claim under

Johnson met the cause requirement, as long as the underlying proceedings

occurred after the Supreme Court expressly precluded the void-for-

vagueness argument in James.39

The fundamental fallacy to the majority’s reasoning is its failure to

recognize that a novel claim will almost always be futile. As the Reed Court

stated:

Just as it is reasonable to assume that a competent lawyer will

fail to perceive the possibility of raising such a [novel] claim, it

is also reasonable to assume that a court will similarly fail to

appreciate the claim. It is in the nature of our legal system that

legal concepts, including constitutional concepts, develop

slowly, finding partial acceptance in some courts while meeting

rejection in others. Despite the fact that a constitutional

concept may ultimately enjoy general acceptance, . . . when the

35

Murray, 477 U.S. at 536 (quoting Reed, 468 U.S. at 18) (emphasis added); Bousley,

523 U.S. at 622 (quoting Reed, 468 U.S. at 16) (emphasis added).

36

979 F.3d at 395–97.

37

Id. at 396.

38

Id.

39

Id. at 397–98.

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concept is in its embryonic stage, it will, by hypothesis, be

rejected by most courts. Consequently, a rule requiring a

defendant to raise a truly novel issue is not likely to serve any

functional purpose.40

The majority ignores this sound reasoning. Instead, it would require

defendants to raise-or-waive every conceivable objection at sentencing and

direct appeal, no matter how novel it may be.

3.

Finally, as further support for its position, the majority points to the

fact that numerous criminal defendants continue to preserve claims

foreclosed by the Supreme Court’s decision in Almendarez-Torres v. United

States.41 If Reed’s first category remains good law, these defendants need not

preserve their arguments, because in the eventuality that the Supreme Court

overrules Almendarez-Torres, the claim will be sufficiently novel to show

cause for their failure to raise it. The majority contends that we cannot “treat

prisoners who raise the [Almendarez-Torres] challenge the same as those that

don’t.”

This reasoning is deeply flawed. This Court has repeatedly

admonished defendants and their counsel not to bring Almendarez-Torres

claims on appeal. For example, in United States v. Pineda-Arrellano, we stated

that “arguments seeking reconsideration of Almendarez-Torres will be viewed

with skepticism.”42 We advised that “[i]t would be prudent for appellants

40

Reed, 468 U.S. at 15.

41

523 U.S. 224 (1998).

42

492 F.3d 624, 626 (5th Cir. 2007).

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and their counsel not to damage their credibility with this court by asserting

non-debatable arguments.”43

If the Supreme Court finally overturns Almendarez-Torres, the

majority would treat those “prudent” defendants—who elected to follow

this Court’s instructions—as having procedurally defaulted their

Almendarez-Torres claims.44 Meanwhile, those imprudent few who chose to

“damage their credibility” by raising their fruitless claims will be entitled to

relief.45 The majority thereby undermines principles of judicial efficiency and

establishes a rule that will unjustly deprive litigants of their opportunity to

challenge an unconstitutional sentence.

II.

The majority opinion stands in direct contradiction to Supreme Court

authority and unanimous circuit authority. In my view, Vargas-Soto has

established cause for his procedural default and has demonstrated that he is

entitled to § 2255 relief. The majority avoids this obvious result by obscuring

or misreading applicable authority. It achieves an injustice in this case, and

many future cases, despite clear Supreme Court guidance. Therefore, I

respectfully dissent.

43

Id.

44

Id.

45

Id.

43