The Supreme Court's FIRST decision of the day is in Greer v. United States. Opinion by Kavanaugh.
There will be more decisions! supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
Greer v. U.S. is an 8–1 decision with Sotomayor dissenting in part.👇
Style nerds will note that Kavanaugh does not divide his opinion into sections, as is customary, but simply writes it like a long essay, presumably because it's short (11 pages). supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
Because Kavanaugh went first this morning, the next opinion(s) could come from any justice except Barrett, as they're issued in order of reverse seniority.
The second and FINAL opinion of the day is in Terry v. U.S., the First Step Act case. No blockbusters* today!
supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
*every case is a blockbuster to someone
In a mostly unanimous opinion by Thomas, the Supreme Court holds that certain crack offenders who did not trigger a mandatory minimum sentence don't qualify for a sentence reduction under the First Step Act.
supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
Sotomayor drops a long footnote criticizing Thomas' "unnecessary, incomplete, and sanitized history of the 100-to-1 ratio" for crack vs. cocaine, noting that he does not mention the "extensive record of race-based myths about crack cocaine."
supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
Sotomayor: "There is ... an extensive record of race-based myths about crack cocaine that the media 'branded onto the public mind and the minds of legislators,' and that appear in the Congressional Record ... The Court barely references the ratio’s real-world impact."
Sotomayor agrees with Thomas' bottom-line textual analysis and urges Congress to fix this loophole in the First Step Act, which its congressional sponsors did not intend to create. supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
Terry resembles Bostock in the sense that Congress probably didn't intend this result when it passed the law at issue. But the Supreme Court unanimously followed the text instead of congressional intent. The difference is that this time, Alito, Thomas, and Kavanaugh didn't balk.
Shorter Alito/Thomas/Kavanaugh
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