United States v. Napoleon Bustamante, 687 F.3d 1190

Bustamante appeals his convictions for illegal reentry under 8 U.S.C. § 1326, false statements in a passport application under 18 U.S.C. § 1542, and a supplemental security income application under 42 U.S.C. § 1383a(a)(1).
The government introduced a document purportedly copying Bustamante’s birth certificate from the Philippines to prove non-citizen status.
Exhibit 1 was created as part of an Air Force citizenship investigation in 1975 and summarized Bustamante’s birth records.
Bustamante objected that Exhibit 1 was not a properly authenticated foreign public document and raised Crawford/Melendez-Diaz challenges.
The district court authenticated Exhibit 1 and held it non-testimonial; Bustamante was convicted on all counts.
The Ninth Circuit vacates the convictions and remands for a new trial because Exhibit 1 violated the Confrontation Clause and the error was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Did the admission of Exhibit 1 violate the Confrontation Clause?	Bustamante argues Exhibit 1 is testimonial and untested by cross-examination.	The government contends Exhibit 1 is a non-testimonial public record or authentic copy.	Yes; Exhibit 1 was testimonial and its admission violated the Sixth Amendment.
Was the Confrontation Clause error harmless beyond a reasonable doubt?	Despite other evidence, the error could have affected the verdict.	The government argues the total evidence was strong enough to render the error harmless.	No; the error was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.

Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (U.S. 2004) (established framework for testimonial hearsay and cross-examination)
Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, 557 U.S. 305 (U.S. 2009) (held certificates analyzing evidence are testimonial)
United States v. Chung, 659 F.3d 815 (9th Cir. 2011) (confrontation analysis for documentary evidence)
United States v. Nguyen, 565 F.3d 668 (9th Cir. 2009) (harmlessness standards for Confrontation Clause errors)
Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673 (U.S. 1986) (framework for evaluating harmless error in Confrontation Clause violations)