Background
Jose Torres-Galaviz appealed from a judgment of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in criminal case No. 2:25-CR-1384-1. The published order does not describe his offense, sentence, or the substance of the challenged supervised-release conditions.
The government filed an unopposed motion asking the Fifth Circuit to vacate two supervised-release conditions and affirm the sentence as modified. In the alternative, the government requested a 30-day extension to file its appellate brief if the court denied the requested relief.
The Court’s Holding
The Fifth Circuit granted the government’s unopposed motion. It vacated two supervised-release conditions and affirmed Torres-Galaviz’s sentence as modified. Because the court granted that relief, it denied as moot the government’s alternative request for additional briefing time.
Judge Oldham dissented. He reiterated his view that the Fifth Circuit’s practice of summarily vacating supervised-release conditions and entering judgment for a defendant is deeply flawed, particularly when the plain error prompting vacatur arises from an intervening circuit decision that did not exist when the district court imposed sentence.
Key Takeaways
- The Fifth Circuit vacated two supervised-release conditions on the government’s unopposed motion.
- The court otherwise affirmed the sentence as modified and required no further merits briefing.
- Judge Oldham objected to the court’s summary-vacatur practice, especially when later circuit precedent supplies the asserted plain error.
Why It Matters
The order shows that the Fifth Circuit may summarily remove supervised-release conditions and affirm the remainder of a sentence when the government agrees that modification is warranted. The order itself does not identify the conditions or explain the legal defect requiring their vacatur.
Judge Oldham’s dissent highlights an ongoing disagreement within the circuit over whether this streamlined procedure is appropriate, particularly when the governing appellate law changed after sentencing.