Where federal law treats certain conduct as a misdemeanor, and state law treats that same conduct as a felony, does that conduct constitute an "aggravated felony" or not? To answer this question, the Court had to parse the phrase "any felony punishable under the Controlled Substances Act."
When federal law designates certain behaviors as misdemeanors and state law considers them felonies, does that behavior qualify as an "aggravated felony"? To address this question, the Court needed to interpret the phrase "any felony punishable under the Controlled Substances Act."