Court odd couple Barrett and Sotomayor nudge Biden on reforms

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A judicial odd couple has formed on the Supreme Court to push President Joe Biden to fix sometimes conflicting sentencing rules the nation’s court system follows.

Slipped into a decision last week to shelve an appeal by a Roanoke, Virginia, drug dealer, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor and conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett highlighted conflicting federal rules in sentencing career offenders and called on Biden to fill the shorthanded U.S. Sentencing Commission so it could clear things up.

The commission, one of several little-known groups Washington relies on, has only one member and needs more to decide common sentencing limits. It has lacked a quorum for three years.

“The resultant unresolved divisions among the Courts of Appeals can have direct and severe consequences for defendants’ sentences,” the justices said.

District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer, the acting chairman of the commission, was appreciative that the two judges tried to nudge Biden into appointing help to make sentencing changes called for in the Trump-era First Step Act.

“It is particularly frustrating that the commission has been unable to implement significant changes made by the First Step Act of 2018, including changes to the procedures by which an offender can seek compassionate release,” he said.

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