The question
Whether the Sentencing Reform Act authorizes a rule automatically extending a defendant's term of supervised release when the defendant absconds.
Rico v. United States
What the Court decided
The Court reversed the Ninth Circuit. The Sentencing Reform Act does not authorize a rule that automatically extends a defendant's term of supervised release when the defendant absconds. Automatic extension is not among the tools the Act provides to address defendants who fail to report or otherwise violate their conditions, and it risks pushing supervised release beyond the statutory maximums Congress set. The Act's specific extension and tolling rules, along with its revocation and reimprisonment authority, leave no room for an automatic extension for abscondment.
How the justices split
8-1The Court's opinion
Gorsuch, joined by Roberts, Thomas, Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh, Barrett, Jackson
The Sentencing Reform Act does not authorize automatically extending a term of supervised release when a defendant absconds. The Ninth Circuit's rule extends rather than tolls the term, pushing it beyond what a judge ordered and risking extension past the statutory maximums Congress set. A term of supervised release starts the day the person is released from imprisonment and is capped at one, three, or five years depending on the offense, and neither provision hints at an automatic extension. The Act lets courts revoke supervised release and impose additional imprisonment and supervised release for violations but never provides for automatic extension for abscondment, and an automatic extension rule disregards the limits in the Act's specific extension and tolling rules.
Dissenting
Alito, writing alone
Alito filed a dissenting opinion. The syllabus reports the dissent but does not summarize its reasoning.
How we know · 5 sourced claims
The Court held that the Sentencing Reform Act does not authorize a rule automatically extending a defendant's term of supervised release when the defendant absconds.
Source: syllabus, Held
A term of supervised release starts the day the person is released from imprisonment and is generally capped at one, three, or five years depending on the severity of the underlying offense.
Source: syllabus, Held
The Ninth Circuit's rule extends rather than tolls the period of supervised release beyond what a judge has ordered and risks permitting courts to exceed the statutory maximums set by Congress.
Source: syllabus, Held
Gorsuch delivered the opinion of the Court, joined by Roberts, Thomas, Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Jackson.
Source: syllabus, lineup
Alito filed a dissenting opinion.
Source: syllabus, lineup