It'll Likely Be a Good Complaint Some Day, But No Time Soon

Fifth Circuit Judge Fortunado P. Benevides, writing for a panel including Carl E. Stewart and Leslie Southwick, reinforced the circuit's view that a district court may
impose a federal sentence that runs consecutively to an undischarged state
sentence. The Eighth, Tenth and Eleventh Circuits agree with the Fives. The government, along with the Second, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits, take the opposite side. Last year Fifth Circuit Judges Priscilla Owen and James L. Dennis even indicated that they didn't like the ruling. A circuit split like this may well interest the Supreme Court of the United States.