United States Fifth Circuit

In defendants' appeal of the district court's order granting garnishment of one defendant's contributions to, and one defendant's monthly benefits from, state pension funds pursuant to a criminal restitution order, the order is affirmed in part where: 1) the Mandatory Victim Restitution Act allowed garnishment of a defendant's retirement benefits to satisfy a criminal restitution order; and 2) the U.S. had the constitutional authority to impose mandatory restitution for particular federal crimes and seek garnishment of any available resources to satisfy that restitution order. However, the order is vacated in part where the U.S. could garnish only twenty-five percent of defendant's monthly pension benefits.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/21/2010
• Published 09/21/2010

Judges

• Catarina M. Haynes

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel