United States v. Labonte

Summary

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Thomas joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, and Souter, held that 28 U. S. C. § 994(h) unambiguously requires career-offender sentencing guidelines to use the statutory maximum including all applicable sentencing enhancements. Amendment 506, which excluded enhancements based on prior convictions, conflicted with that command. The Court reversed and remanded, without deciding whether the Sentencing Commission generally receives Chevron deference. Justice Breyer dissented, joined by Justices Stevens and Ginsburg. He considered the statute ambiguous and would have deferred to the Commission's reasonable interpretation, which sought to reconcile increased punishment for recidivists with sentencing uniformity and other statutory objectives, and affirmed the Court of Appeals.