UNITED STATES v. BONDS (2019)

SUMMARY ORDER

Defendant-Appellant Jason Bonds appeals his October 2, 2018 sentence upon conviction after his plea of guilty to one count of possession of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(4)(B). The district court sentenced Bonds to 45 months of imprisonment, to be followed by a five-year term of supervised release. Bonds challenges only one aspect of that sentence: a special condition of supervised release requiring that he submit to polygraph examinations at the direction of a probation officer. Because any refusal to do so could result in a revocation of supervised release and a return to prison, Bonds argues that the polygraph requirement violates his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Bonds states that he has filed this appeal to preserve the issue for further review; citing our decisions in United States v. Johnson, 446 F.3d 272 (2d Cir. 2006), and United States v. Boles, 914 F.3d 95 (2d Cir. 2019), he concedes that binding circuit precedent forecloses his challenge. We agree. In the absence of any intervening Supreme Court decisions casting doubt on our prior rulings, see Doscher v. Sea Port Grp. Secs., LLC, 832 F.3d 372, 378 (2d Cir. 2016), we are bound to apply Boles and the cases preceding it, even over the objection that they were “wrongly decided,” Kremer v. Chemical Constr. Corp., 623 F.2d 786, 788 (2d Cir. 1980). Bonds raises such an objection, but concedes that Boles controls our decision nonetheless. As we find no other basis for reversal, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.