Dolan v. United States

Summary

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Breyer joined by Justices Thomas, Ginsburg, Alito, and Sotomayor, held that missing the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act’s 90-day deadline does not eliminate a sentencing court’s power to order restitution, at least when the court announced before the deadline expired that restitution would be ordered and left only the amount unresolved. The deadline is a time-related directive, rather than a jurisdictional limitation or claims-processing rule. The Court also held that Rule 35 did not govern the later determination of the reserved restitution amount and rejected application of the rule of lenity. It affirmed the Tenth Circuit and expressly reserved questions about appellate finality and equitable responses to prejudicial delay. Chief Justice Roberts, joined by Justices Stevens, Scalia, and Kennedy, dissented, reasoning that the statute provides only a 90-day exception to the finality of an imposed sentence and that the District Court lacked authority to add restitution afterward.