In United States v. Taylor, --- F.4th ---, No. 22-10203 (9th Cir. 2024), the Court affirmed the special conditions of supervised release imposed by the district court in a case in which Arnold Ray Taylor argued that the district court (1) unconstitutionally delegated its judicial authority to Taylor’s probation officer to determine the duration of the substance abuse treatment required in Special Condition 2, and (2) erred because it imposed an above-Guidelines sentence and failed to specifically explain its reasons for doing so.
It held that the district court, which ordered a specific time range for Taylor’s inpatient substance treatment with a hard upper limit of one year, did not unconstitutionally delegate its judicial authority by ordering the probation officer to supervise Taylor’s progress in inpatient treatment, and allowing the probation officer the discretion to reduce—but not increase—the duration of his inpatient treatment in consultation with Taylor’s care provider. It further held that the district court’s imposition of Special Condition 2 in addition to a high-end Guidelines sentence did not constitute an upward variance.
