WASHINGTON –
Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today joined U.S.
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chair of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, and U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) in
submitting an Amicus Brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Tarahrick Terry v.
United States, a case related to the interpretation of provisions of the First
Step Act of 2018 (FSA) and the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010. The Fair
Sentencing Act, authored by Durbin, reduced the federal sentencing
disparity between crack and powder cocaine from 100:1 to 18:1. In 2018,
Grassley, Durbin, Booker and Lee were the lead sponsors of the First Step
Act, which made the Fair Sentencing Act retroactive.
The
brief explains that Section 404 of the FSA authorizes relief to everyone who
had been sentenced for crack-cocaine offenses before the Fair Sentencing Act
became effective, including individuals with low-level crack offenses. However,
in 2019 the Justice Department argued that the lowest level crack offenses are
not covered offenses. The brief calls on the Supreme Court to reject that
argument.
Several
U.S. Courts of Appeal, including the 1st, 4th, and 7th Circuits have rejected
the Justice Department’s 2019 argument and held that the lowest level offenses
are covered offenses, but the 11th Circuit wrongly accepted the argument
in Terry. The Supreme Court’s decision in Terry will resolve this
split and dictate whether low-level crack offenders who were subject to the
100:1 ratio will be eligible for resentencing as the First Step Act and Fair
Sentencing Act dictates.
The
Senators wrote: “The text Congress enacted makes retroactive relief broadly
available to all individuals sentenced for crack-cocaine offenses before the
Fair Sentencing Act.”
Click
here
to read the full Amicus Brief.
