Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: Supreme Court Decision Syllabus (SCOTUS Podcast)
Episode: Pulsifer v. United States (Statutory Construction / Sentencing)
Description: Send us Fan MailPULSIFER v. UNITED STATES No. 22–340. Argued October 2, 2023—Decided March 15, 2024 After pleading guilty to distributing at least 50 grams of methamphetamine, petitioner Mark Pulsifer faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison. At sentencing, he sought to take advantage of the “safety valve” provision of federal sentencing law, which allows a sentencing court to disregard the statutory minimum if a defendant meets five criteria. Among those is the requirement, set out in Paragraph (f)(1), that the sentencing court find that— (1) the defendant does not have— (A) more than 4 criminal history poin...