Supreme Court update: Ketanji Brown Jackson writes majority opinion for sentencing case.

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson: Judges Can Show Leniency in Sentencing for Firearm Crimes

In a groundbreaking unanimous opinion authored by Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, it has been determined that judges have the power to be more lenient in the sentencing process for certain crimes involving firearms.

In the unanimous opinion in Lora v. United States, the justices clarified that a ban on concurrent sentences in one section of the criminal code for drug-related gun crimes does not dictate the sentence for a conviction under another section of the law.

Justice Jackson, a former federal trial court judge and the first former public defender to serve on the high court, emphasized that while Congress could have designed the penalty scheme differently, they chose not to, and therefore it is the court’s duty to implement the design chosen by Congress.

“Congress could certainly have designed the penalty scheme at issue here differently,” she wrote. “But Congress did not do any of these things. And we must implement the design Congress chose.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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