Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21-5726_5iel.pdf
Page Number: 5.0

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KEMP v. UNITED STATES 

Opinion of the Court 

the Southern District of Florida to vacate his sentence un-
der  28  U. S. C.  §2255.    The  Government  objected  that
Kemp’s §2255 motion was untimely.  As relevant here, such 
motions must be filed within one year of “the date on which
the judgment of conviction becomes final.”  §2255(f )(1).  For 
someone  who,  like  Kemp,  does  not  petition  this  Court  for 
certiorari, a judgment becomes final when the time to seek 
certiorari expires—ordinarily, 90 days after judgment.  See 
Clay v. United States, 537 U. S. 522, 525 (2003); this Court’s 
Rule 13.1.  In this case, the District Court concluded that 
Kemp’s judgment became final in February 2014 (90 days
after the Eleventh Circuit’s judgment affirming his convic-
tion and sentence), making his April 2015 motion over two
months late.  The District Court dismissed Kemp’s motion 
in September 2016, and Kemp did not appeal.

In June 2018—almost two years later—Kemp attempted 
to reopen his §2255 proceedings under Federal Rule of Civil
Procedure 60(b), which authorizes a court to reopen a final 
judgment under certain enumerated circumstances.  Rule 
60(b)(1)  permits  a  district  court  to  reopen  a  judgment  for 
“mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect,” so
long as the motion is filed “within a reasonable time,” and, 
at most, one year after the entry of the order under review. 
See Fed. Rules Civ. Proc. 60(b)(1), (c)(1).  Meanwhile, Rule 
60(b)(6) permits reopening for “any other reason that justi-
fies relief,” so long as the motion is filed “within a reasona-
ble time.”  Rule 60(c)(1).

Kemp  invoked  Rule  60(b)(6),  but  his  motion  arguably 
sought reopening based on a kind of “mistake” covered by
Rule  60(b)(1).    Specifically,  Kemp  argued  that  reopening 
was  warranted  because  this  Court’s  Rule  13.3  prescribes 
that the 90-day clock to seek certiorari does not begin to run
until all parties’ petitions for rehearing are denied, and the 
Eleventh  Circuit  denied  his  codefendants’  rehearing  peti-
tions  in  May  2014.    Thus,  according  to  Kemp,  the  1-year