OR · 21usc841:prior-conviction
Governed by the notice and information procedures of 21 U.S.C. § 851 (and exempted from Apprendi's jury requirement under Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224 (1998)).
Exact element source
after a prior conviction for a serious drug felony or serious violent felony has become finalSource:
docroot/ir/usc/title21.jsonl#title21_sec841; Unicode character offsets [2874:2967] (end exclusive); SHA-256 ebaba73bf6e21a591f44bf851f24a052a5687813c505030cd9483e17753e9420.All variants
| Variant | Description | Merits instance blocks | Distinct cases | Example cases (up to 3 per group) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unspecified variant | No variant assigned in the database. | 0 Satisfied 0; not satisfied 0; excluded context 1 | 0 | No counted merits examples Excluded context examples: /f4th/142/259 — Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit · 2025 — comparator/merits |
How courts decided this element
| Case | Element | Holding and scope | Variant | Exact source quotations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /f4th/142/259 — Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit · 2025 | Recidivist enhancement for prior conviction for a serious drug felony or serious violent felony (§ 841(b)(1), 21 U.S.C. § 851) | not_reached Excluded from merits counts comparator / merits claim: (a)(1),(b)(1)(C) The recidivism issue is the Guidelines career-offender enhancement (U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1/4B1.2(b)), not a § 841(b) statutory enhancement. | Unspecified variant | No source quotation recorded for this block. |
Court interpretations
interpretation
In other words, to satisfy the categorical approach, a state drug offense must meet two conditions: It must "necessarily" proscribe conduct that is an offense under the CSA, and the CSA must "necessarily" prescribe felony punishment for that conduct.
/us/569/0184-01 — Supreme Court of the United States · 2013
In other words, to satisfy the categorical approach, a state drug offense must meet two conditions: It must "necessarily" proscribe conduct that is an offense under the CSA, and the CSA must "necessarily" prescribe felony punishment for that conduct.Source:
docroot/ir/caselaw/us_569.jsonl#/us/569/0184-01; Unicode character offsets [9133:9383] (end exclusive); SHA-256 83d74d149cfb2b77011039cc127c0214d4fc14fb10708357fa68e3629127e81b.Governed by the notice and information procedures of 21 U.S.C. § 851 (and exempted from Apprendi's jury requirement under Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224 (1998)).