US Sup.Ct. Slip Op. of June 26, 2025
Ruling: The First Step Act, enacted by Congress in 2018, substantially reduces sentences that can be imposed for certain crimes that were committed before enactment, as long as final sentencing does not occur until after enactment. If a sentence for a pre-enactment crime has been vacated, either before or after enactment, then the sentencing reductions of the First Step Act apply, notwithstanding that kind of retroactive operation. The Court voted 5-4 that the following language in the First Step Act required this kind of retroactivity when a sentence for a pre-enactment crime is vacated:
This section . . . shall apply to any offense that was committed before the date of enactment of this Act, if a sentence for the offense has not been imposed as of such date of enactment.
See Notes to 18 U.S.C. §802 and §924.
The majority went on to explain that once a criminal sentence has been “vacated” by the trial court, the law considers that the sentence never existed. The four dissenting Justices, Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh and Barrett basically but emphatically called the majority’s analysis of “vacated” sentences nonsense.
RECENT RULINGS 