Rutherford v. United States

The Court holds that when Congress declines to make a sentencing amendment retroactive — as it did with the First Step Act's change to the "stacked" mandatory minimums of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) — the resulting disparity between a prisoner's existing sentence and the shorter one he would receive today cannot be an "extraordinary and compelling" reason warranting a sentence reduction under the compassionate-release statute, § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i). To the extent the Sentencing Commission's 2023 policy statement counsels otherwise, it is invalid. CASE: Rutherford v. United States AUTHOR: Barrett, J. DECIDED: 2026-05-28 OPINION: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-820_97be.pdf AI DISCLOSURE: The voices in this podcast are AI-generated. The narration is produced by a machine-learning voice synthesis model. Tone, inflection, pacing, and emphasis are artifacts of the model and should not be attributed to any individual. The text being read is the majority opinion as published by the Supreme Court of the United States with light adaptations to improve readability.