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this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023
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Tldr on the ambiguity of and?
It’s basically explained in these three sections:
“In particular, the justices will be examining a so-called safety valve provision that is meant to spare low-level, nonviolent drug dealers who agree to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors from having to face often longer mandatory sentences.”
“The provision lists three criteria for allowing judges to forgo a mandatory minimum sentence that basically look to the severity of prior crimes. Congress did not make it easy by writing the section in the negative so that a judge can exercise discretion in sentencing if a defendant “does not have” three sorts of criminal history.”
“The question is how to determine eligibility for the safety valve — whether any of the conditions is enough to disqualify someone or whether it takes all three to be ineligible.”
And since fucking asshole journalists and editors never mention the actual goddamn law, it's 18 U.S. Code § 3553(f)(1), here: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/3553#f
Condensed version:
The "and" is pretty clear. In order to qualify for sentencing outside the statutory minimum, you must not have more than 4 points, a 3-point offense, and a 2-point violent offense. In short, you must not have A, B, and C. If you have A, B, and C, you do not qualify. But almost nobody is going to have all three of A, B, and C.
That's actually far more ambiguous than I expected.
It's really not ambiguous at all. There is no reasonable way to read "and" and interpret it as "or".
Right, but with more logic-challenged individuals in mind, this is far more ambiguous than necessary. It shouldn't be ambiguous to anyone in law, though, and that's all that should matter.
So the argument is basically: (A&B&C) Or (A) or (B&C)
Correct?
Looks like it but if so IMO it's not really about and, it's about the structure of how the conditions are written down. Another and between A & B would clarify the intent if all 3 conditions need to be met.
It would not. A, B, and C means all three. If they meant any other configuration of criteria, there are existing ways of writing it that they would have used.
The citizens' argument is that the law is clear in that you are only disqualified from reduced sentencing if you meet all three conditions.
The other side, used by some courts and prosecutors, is that obviously Congress didn't mean what they wrote, so they're going to use the more punitive interpretation.
Crazy how much money we waste on the war on drugs.