Freeman v. United States

Summary

A fractured Supreme Court reversed the Sixth Circuit and held that William Freeman, serving a 106-month sentence fixed by a Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement, is eligible to seek a sentence reduction under 18 U.S.C. §3582(c)(2) after retroactive crack-cocaine amendments lowered his applicable Guidelines range from 46–57 months to 37–46 months (plus a consecutive 60-month §924(c) minimum). Justice Kennedy's four-Justice plurality concluded there is no categorical bar: because the district judge must in every case exercise discretion framed by the Guidelines and must weigh the applicable range before accepting a (C) agreement, a sentence imposed in light of a Guidelines range is 'based on' that range within §3582(c)(2)'s meaning. Justice Sotomayor concurred in the judgment on narrower grounds, treating the (C)-agreement term as based on the agreement itself but 'based on' a Guidelines range where the agreement expressly employs one, as Freeman's did. Chief Justice Roberts, joined by Scalia, Thomas, and Alito, dissented, contending that a fixed-term (C)-agreement sentence is based only on the agreement and that the concurrence's 'expressly uses' exception is arbitrary and unworkable.