Whether a state's retroactive reclassification of a felony drug conviction to a misdemeanor precludes its use as a predicate offense under federal recidivist sentencing provisions

QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. If a state retroactively reduces a felony drug conviction to a misdemeanor, can the government rely on that newly-reclassified misdemeanor conviction to satisfy the recidivist provisions of 21 U.S.C. § 841, which call for an enhanced sentence when a defendant has at least one previous conviction for a “felony drug offense”? 2. If 21 U.S.C. § 841 permits a federal court to count as a “felony drug offense” a state conviction that the state has retroactively reduced to a misdemeanor, is § 841 contrary to the Fifth Amendment’s rights to due process and equal protection and the Tenth Amendment’s federalism principles? 3. Whether the Court should grant the petition for a writ of certiorari, vacate the sentence, and remand to the Seventh Circuit for consideration of this case in light of the Ninth Circuit’s ruling that California methamphetamine convictions, like Ms. Sanders’s, cannot serve as predicate offenses for federal recidivist provisions? i