The Johnson Retroactivity Circuit Split Plot Thickens…
A few weeks ago, I wrote a rather lengthy post about the circuit split over whether the Supreme Court’s June 2015 decision in Johnson v. United States both (1) is “substantive” (and therefore retroactively enforceable by federal prisoners filing their initial claims for collateral post-conviction relief); and (2) has been “made retroactive” by the Supreme Court (and can therefore provide the basis for a second-or-successive application for collateral post-conviction relief). As I explained then, unlike the typical circuit split, a combination of the jurisdictional limitations imposed by AEDPA and the government’s litigating position (that the answer to both questions is “yes”) has seemed, at least to date, to deprive the Supreme Court of a “normal” way to resolve this circuit split, suggesting instead that the matter be resolved through the Court’s seldom-utilized authority to issue extraordinary writs, including an “original” writ of habeas corpus. As importantly, the clock is running; it’s widely believed that AEDPA’s one-year statute of limitations will require all Johnson-based claims to be filed by June 26, 2016, no matter when the Supreme Court clarifies its retroactive application.
Well, the plots, such as they are, are thickening…
The Supreme Court now has before it at least three petitions for original habeas writs (In re Butler, In re Sharp, and In re Triplett), along with at least one petition for a writ of mandamus (also