Robbery as a violent crime
Mao v. United States
In brief
- Where it stands
- Petition Pending
Awaiting an order on the petition
- What it’s about
- Mao asks the Supreme Court to review whether his Virginia conviction for using or displaying a firearm during a robbery counts as a “crime of violence” for career-offender sentencing.
- What's at stake
- The unresolved question is whether Mao's conviction qualifies under the federal career-offender sentencing rule; the Supreme Court has not agreed to review that question.
Summary: written with AI from the case record.
What it's about
He also asks the Court to wait for Beaird, which concerns how courts should treat Sentencing Guidelines commentary.
The federal Sentencing Guidelines include rules for deciding whether a person qualifies as a career offender based on prior convictions.
Question presented
1. Should this case be held, and eventually remanded, pending this Court’s anticipated disposition of Beaird v. United States, 25-5343 (April 20, 2026) (order granting petition for certiorari), because the question presented in Beaird – “Whether Stinson v. United States, 508 U.S. 36 (1993), still correctly states the rule for the deference that courts must give to the commentary to the Sentencing Guidelines?” – controls one of the issues Petitioner presented to the court below? 2. In reaching a decision contrary to the Fourth Circuit regarding whether Petitioner’s Virginia-state conviction for using or displaying a firearm while committing a robbery, Va. Code Ann. § 18.2.-53.1, is a crime of violence per U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a) (2021), did the lower court misstate state law in a manner that raises federalism concerns and violates this Court’s admonition to “defer considerably,” McMillan v. Monroe County, 520 U.S. 781, 786 (1997), to the court of appeals with most experience interpreting the laws of the state in which it sits?
What happens next
The petition was distributed for the Court's Oct. 16, 2026 conference. That is not a grant of review or a guaranteed decision date; no oral argument or decision date is set.
Documents
Docket activity
New analysis added
AI analysis generated: Case Briefing
Case data updated: summary, question_presented, generation_metadata
Case data updated: question_presented, extraction_metadata
Brief added: Petition
More questions
- What question is Beaird about?
- Beaird asks whether Stinson v. United States still gives the right rule for how much weight courts must give commentary to the Sentencing Guidelines.
Sources
Primary materials plus reporting. Best-effort analysis: this explainer relies on a mix of primary materials and trusted secondary sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.