McNeill v. United States

Docket No.	Op. Below	Argument	Opinion	Vote	Author	Term
10-5258	4th Cir.	Apr 25, 2011 Tr.Aud.	Jun 6, 2011	9-0	Thomas	OT 2010

Holding: A federal sentencing court must determine whether an offense under state law is a serious drug offense by consulting the maximum term of imprisonment applicable to a defendant's prior state drug offense at the time of the defendant's conviction for that offense, rather than looking to state law at the time of the defendant's federal sentencing.

Plain English Holding: A federal statute imposes higher sentences for federal defendants who have previously been convicted of a serious drug offense. Whether a prior offense counts as a serious drug offense is determined by looking at the longest sentence that the defendant could have received when he was convicted, even if the defendant would have received a lower sentence later.

Judgment: Affirmed. on June 6, 2011.

SCOTUSblog Coverage

Opinion analysis: Law at time of past conviction dispositive for ACCA (Amy Burns)
Argument recap: Present, past, or sometime in between? (Rose Leda Ehler)
Argument preview: What counts as a â€œserious drug offenseâ€? (Harker Rhodes)

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Editor's Note :

McNeill v. United States

SCOTUSblog Coverage

Briefs and Documents

Certiorari-stage documents

Featured Posts

Remembering Justice Stevens: A lost link to our past – Gregory Garre

Challengers respond in dispute over funding for border wall – Amy Howe

Justice Stevens at oral argument: Often fatal; always kind – Paul Clement

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