Case Citator › United States v. Gerald Wheeler

United States v. Gerald Wheeler

Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.

Abrogated
Court
Fourth Circuit
Citation
886 F.3d 415
Decided
Confirmed treatments
2
Flagged citations read
32 of 32
Citing cases (total)
32
Treatment dates
2019–2023
Abrogated
A reviewed court treats this case as abrogated by later authority. United States v. Gerald Wheeler's savings clause rule was abrogated. All 32 flagged citations have been read, and the 2 confirmed treatments are listed below.
More on how this was screened

Jones v. Hendrix rejected the use of the savings clause to bypass the statutory limits on second or successive motions. Bell v. Streeval (2025), a published Fourth Circuit decision, expressly held that Wheeler's test is no longer good law after Jones. The Fifth Circuit had independently declined to follow Wheeler in Higgs v. Warden Wilson. The Jones v. Hendrix opinion does not name Wheeler. The published Fourth Circuit opinion in Bell v. Streeval () expressly links Jones's holding to Wheeler: “So although Hendrix does not mention Wheeler or Young by name, the reasoning in those cases has been fundamentally rejected. Along with Jones, they are no longer good law.” The other flagged opinions either applied Wheeler, rejected a party's argument, or reported another court's later act.

Every treatment on this page is written from the citing opinion itself, with a verbatim quote, never copied from a commercial citator. A citation flagged by our screen but not shown here was read and found not to weaken this case.

32 later cases cite United States v. Gerald Wheeler; 32 of those citations sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading, and all of them have been read. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.

Relying on United States v. Gerald Wheeler?

This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.

Treatments

Abrogated

  • The Supreme Court held that an intervening statutory interpretation and inability to meet the limits on successive motions do not open the savings clause route to a second collateral attack.

    Jones v. Hendrix · Supreme Court of the United States · filed

    We now hold that the saving clause does not authorize such an end-run around AEDPA. In § 2255(h), Congress enumerated two—and only two—conditions in which a second or successive § 2255 motion may proceed.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

Declined to follow

  • The Fifth Circuit declined to apply Wheeler's savings clause rule for sentencing challenges because it conflicted with binding Fifth Circuit precedent.

    Higgs v. Warden Wilson · Fifth Circuit · filed

    While he relies on United States v. Wheeler, 886 F.3d 415 (4th Cir. 2018), cert. denied, 139 S. Ct. 1318 (2019), to argue that fundamental sentencing errors satisfy the savings clause, Wheeler is not binding in this circuit and does not allow us to overturn our precedent.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

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