Whether the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals' two-step inquiry for determining the validity of an appeal waiver in a plea agreement should be expanded to include a third step inquiring whether the failure to consider the defendant's claim would result in a miscarriage of justice

QUESTION PRESENTED The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that to determine whether an appeal of a sentence is barred by an appeal waiver provision in a plea agreement, the this Court will conduct a two-step inquiry: (1) whether the waiver was knowing and voluntary and (2) whether the waiver applies to the circumstances at hand, based on the plain language of the agreement. However, many of the other circuit courts of appeal also conduct a third step, inquiring whether the circuit court’s “failure to consider [the defendant’s] claim will result in a miscarriage of justice.” This dichotomy thus raises the specter of a circuit split and renders the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’s stance on the issue to be an outlier. Should this Court therefore grant certiorari in this case in order to clarify the law on this often-occurring situation and to resolve the circuit split?