May a defendant be required to forfeit substitute property in lieu of the firearms and ammunition subject to forfeiture under 18 U.S.C. § 924(d)?

QUESTIONS PRESENTED Criminal forfeiture statutes must be strictly construed in light of the “background principles” of forfeiture. Honeycutt v. United States, 137 S. Ct. 1626, 1634-35 & n.2 (2017). A penalty provision for federal firearms and ammunition offenses, 18 U.S.C. § 924(d), authorizes civil forfeiture of “only those firearms or quantities of ammunition” involved in a firearm/ammunition exportation offense. A bridging statute, 28 U.S.C. § 2461(c), provides that, if “civil .. . forfeiture of property is authorized” by a criminal statute and the “defendant is convicted of the offense giving rise to the forfeiture, the court shall order the forfeiture of the property as part of” the defendant’s sentence, applying “the procedures” of 21 U.S.C. § 853, with the exception of § 853(d). Under 21 U.S.C. § 853(p), a subsection of a criminal forfeiture statute, the court shall order forfeiture of “any other property of the defendant” if “any property described in” § 853(a)—namely, “proceeds” the “person obtained” as a result of the violation or “any of the person’s property” used to commit or facilitate the violation—is rendered unavailable by the defendant. In a split with the Third and Fourth Circuits, the Ninth Circuit held that 28 U.S.C. § 2461(c) and 21 U.S.C. § 853(p) allow the forfeiture of substitute assets of a defendant even when the items subject to civil forfeiture under the authorizing statute are not encompassed by § 853(a). The questions presented are: (1) May a defendant be required to forfeit substitute property in lieu of the firearms and ammunition subject to forfeiture under 18 U.S.C. § 924(d)? (2) If the substitute-asset provision of 21 U.S.C. § 853(p) is applied to a forfeiture imposed under any statute via 28 U.S.C. § 2461, must the limitations of 21 U.S.C. § 853(a)—which are explicitly incorporated by § 853(p)—be applied as well? In other words, if substitute-asset forfeiture is imposed via 28 U.S.C. § 2461(0), is it limited to situations in which a defendant transfers or conceals her own property? i PARTIES AND PROCEEDINGS All