The Supreme Court on Monday found that certain low-level crack cocaine offenders are not eligible for sentencing reductions, a repudiation of the Biden administration’s late case change in opinion.
In a majority opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court found that convicts who did not trigger a mandatory minimum sentence also did not qualify for a retroactive sentence reduction. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a concurring opinion in which she agreed with Thomas’s judgment.
MERRICK GARLAND TARGETS NEW REPUBLICAN VOTING LAWS AFTER 2020 ELECTION
The court’s decision sought to settle questions raised in the 2018 First Step Act, a law signed by former President Donald Trump to reform sentencing surrounding minor drug offenders. In the case, Tarahrick Terry, a Florida man, argued that under the First Step Act, his sentence of more than 15 years should be reduced.
The Trump administration argued that, because of the way that Congress had worded the act, Terry was not eligible for a sentencing reduction. When President Joe Biden took office in January, the Justice Department reversed course and sided with Terry.
The case was scheduled to be argued in March. But with no one from the federal government to defend the law, the court was forced to hire an outside lawyer to argue in favor of the former Trump administration’s position. The case was rescheduled for May and was the last one the court heard this spring.
During arguments, it became clear that the justices were skeptical of the new administration’s reading of the First Step Act. Although many of the act’s sponsors, including Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, argued that it was their intention to cover low-level offenders like Terry, the court said that the act’s text did not seem to do that.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“I’m looking at what Congress did, not what maybe they should have done,” Justice Stephen Breyer told attorneys during arguments.
A federal District Court, as well as an appeals court, also ruled against Terry.
