United States v. Ralph Stuart Granderson, JR. (511 U.S. 39)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 22, 1994 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 511 U.S. 39 · 114 S. Ct. 1259
- Decided
- March 22, 1994
- Term
- October Term 1993
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Ginsburg
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court. This case presents a question of statutory interpretation regarding revocation of a federal sentence of probation. The law at issue provides that if a person serving a sentence of probation possesses illegal drugs, “the court shall revoke the sentence of probation and sentence the defendant to not less than one-third of the original sentence.” 18 U. S. C. § 3565(a). Congress did not further define the critical term “original sentence,” nor are those words, unmodified, used elsewhere in the Federal Criminal Code chapter on sentencing. Embedded in that context, the words “original sentence” in § 3565(a) are susceptible to at least three interpretations. Read in isolation, the provision could be taken to mean the reimposition of a sentence of probation, for a period not less than one-third of the original sentence of probation. This construction, however, is implausible, and has been urged by neither party, for it would generally demand no increased sanction, plainly not what Congress intended. The Government, petitioner here, reads the provision to draw the time period from the initially imposed sentence of probation, but to require incarceration, not renewed probation, for not less than one-third of that period. On the Government’s reading, accepted by the District Court, respondent Granderson would face a 20-month mandatory…
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