Why All Nine Justices Overturned a Ludicrously Cruel Prison Sentence

Justice Stephen Breyer, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan Wooden v. United States is almost enough to restore one’s faith in the Supreme Court’s ability to act like a real court. In the opinion, which the court handed down Monday morning, all nine justices ruled in favor of a criminal defendant without a whiff of partisanship or motivated reasoning. They rejected a harsh and ludicrous interpretation of federal statute that would have transformed short prison terms into potential lifetime sentences. And they engaged in an important, cross-ideological debate about draconian yet ambiguous penal laws.

By Monday afternoon, politics […]

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