Joe Biden’s deserved, humiliating loss at the Supreme Court

All nine justices agreed Biden’s Justice Department had no business shredding legal norms and abandoning the rule of law by refusing to enforce or defend it in court. The fact all nine justices agreed demonstrates just how deeply disturbing and flagrant the administration’s action in this case was.

It’s a sad reminder the administration that ran on “restoring norms” intends to do nothing of the sort.

The case pertains to a specific technical matter with President Donald Trump’s criminal justice reform law, the First Step Act. Among other things, this law allowed current federal inmates to have their sentences revisited if they had been affected by the old pre-2010 mandatory minimum sentences, which were much stiffer for offenses involving crack than for offenses involving powder cocaine.

This case had been brought by Tarahrick Terry, a career criminal and federal prisoner who pleaded guilty in 2008 to dealing crack cocaine. His plea came in exchange for having additional gun charges dropped by President Barack Obama’s Justice Department. (Incidentally, this common occurrence should be considered every time politicians such as Obama and Biden engage in their typical empty posturing about gun violence.)

Terry thought the First Step Act would be his literal Get Out of Jail Free card. The federal courts did not go for it. The court’s 9-0 decision this week prevented Biden’s soft-on-crime Justice Department from defying the rule of law and gave him that card anyway.

Because of the provision under which he was convicted and the guidelines under which he was sentenced, Terry’s sentence had not been determined by the old, unfair sentencing minimums or guidelines used to discriminate against crack. Rather, the judge in his case determined his sentence of more than 15 and a half years based on the fact Terry met the criteria for being a “career offender” — he was a three-time loser with a history of drug or violent crime convictions.

The First Step Act was intended to correct an injustice: minor drug offenders had been handed enormous, life-ruining sentences by federal judges. They were unable to get their sentences reduced despite a change in the sentencing guidelines. Congress, Trump, and most people agreed it was counterproductive to set minor offenders back so far they would have little chance of ever rebuilding their lives and becoming productive members of society.

The First Step Act was a good law, and the Washington Examiner supported it. But its language was specific for a reason. It was not intended to provide relief to hardened criminals who doggedly, persistently cling to a life of crime and refuse to endure the drudgery that everyone else must endure to make an honest living.

The Terry case was something different. It involved different crimes, which rightly are treated differently by the law.

The Trump Justice Department successfully argued this case in the lower courts, and Terry’s sentence was upheld. But the Biden Justice Department, embarrassingly heedless of the crime wave that has been developing under his watch and the loss of lives — disproportionately black lives — that is occurring as a consequence, reversed course. Biden’s Justice Department informed the Supreme Court it would not defend the ruling — that, in fact, its earlier position had been in error.

The justices utterly rejected this lame attempt to throw the rule of law over the side. Even Justice Sonia Sotomayor, whose reasoning was different, agreed that Biden’s position was just flat-out wrong.

This nation’s representative democratic process comes to fruition when Congress legislates. The laws it passes represent what the people consent to at the time they are enacted.

If Congress ever decides to make exceptions for career criminals, then Biden is free to be as soft on them as he wants. In the meantime, this case shows even the most liberal justices are serious about following the letter and spirit of the law as it was enacted.