United States v. Elba Torres
Opinion
Elba Torres was convicted of charges related to the unlawful acquisition and sale of identity documents.
See
This case poses a seemingly straightforward question: is a passport card "a United States passport" under section 2L2.1(b)(5)(A) ? To answer this question, we apply "basic rules" of "statutory" interpretation, including the ordinary-meaning rule, which requires us to give undefined words and phrases their plain and ordinary meaning.
United States v. Hackman
,
What makes this case unusual, however, is that the ordinary meaning of the phrase "United States passport" is intertwined with its technical legal meaning, because a passport is itself a legal document. To quote one representative definition, a passport is an "official document issued by a government" to prospective travelers. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 1289 (5th ed. 2011); see also Webster's Third New International Dictionary 1652 (2002) (explaining that a passport is "a formal document issued by a competent officer ... of a country"). So a United States passport, then, must refer to any official document that the United States government has designated as a passport and issues to travelers.
This includes passport cards. One federal regulation, for example, identifies passport cards as one of five "[t]ypes of passports" and explains that they are "issued ... on the same basis" as "regular passports."
This conclusion should come as little surprise to anyone who has recently applied for either a regular passport book or a passport card. The instructions to the Department of State's current application, which can be used to apply for either or both, explain that a "passport card
is a U.S. passport
issued in card format." U.S. Dep't of State, U.S. Passport Application 3 (June 2016) (emphasis added), available at https://eforms.state.gov/Forms/ds11.pdf (last visited April 8, 2019). The instructions further state that a passport card, "[l]ike the traditional U.S. passport book ..., reflects the bearer's origin, identity, and nationality, and is subject to existing passport laws and regulations."
Torres's arguments to the contrary are unpersuasive. She contends that the Guidelines must exclude passport cards because they did not exist when the Sentencing Commission first implemented section 2L2.1(b)(5)(A). The problem with this argument, however, is that nothing about the use of the phrase "a United States passport" suggests a limited class of then-existing passports. In fact, adoption of such a broad phrase suggests that it includes any form of passport that the Department of State decides to issue on behalf of the United States.
Torres also urges us to invoke the rule of lenity, but this canon applies only when the relevant language is ambiguous and ordinary interpretive tools "reveal[ ] no satisfactory construction."
Lockhart v. United States
, --- U.S. ----,
We accordingly affirm the judgment of the district court.
The Honorable Linda R. Reade, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Iowa.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee v. Elba TORRES, Defendant-Appellant
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published