Aggravated Felonies

(B)  Ordinary Meaning Argument.  The ordinary meaning of “aggravated felony,” however, obviously does not include misdemeanor convictions.  The Supreme Court has adopted an ordinary meaning approach to deciding whether a conviction falls within the aggravated felony definition.[489]  This argument could be raised to argue against including convictions labeled by the jurisdiction of conviction as misdemeanors within the aggravated felony definition.

[489] See Leocal v. Ashcroft, 543 U.S. 1, 160 L. Ed. 2d 271, 125 S.Ct. 377 (2004)(Supreme Court uses “ordinary meaning” approach to conclude that accidental injury does not fall within ordinary meaning of “crime of violence” aggravated felony definition: “In construing both parts of § 16, we cannot forget that we ultimately are determining the meaning of the term ‘crime of violence.’ The ordinary meaning of this term, combined with § 16’s emphasis on the use of physical force against another person (or the risk of having to use such force in committing a crime), suggests a category of violent, active crimes that cannot be said naturally to include DUI offenses.”).