Dossier
U.S. Courts of Appeals
Coverage of U.S. Courts of Appeals in the Nexus archive.
- The administrative agency cases were not the court’s only significant separation of powers decisions this term
The Supreme Court limited federal courts' authority to grant compassionate release under the First Step Act in Rutherford v. United States and Fernandez v. United States. The decisions emphasized Congress's role in criminal law and restricted lower courts from overriding Congressional judgments. The rulings addressed statutory interpretations of 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c) and abrogated prior appellate court decisions allowing broad judicial discretion in sentence reductions.