Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-1650_3dq3.pdf
Page Number: 8.0

Cite as:  597 U. S. ____ (2022) 

3 

Opinion of the Court 

between  crack-cocaine  and  powder-cocaine  offenders.    At 
the  time  Concepcion  was  sentenced,  an  offense  involving 
five or more grams of crack cocaine resulted in a statutory
sentencing range of 5 to 40 years’ imprisonment; it required 
100 times as much powder cocaine to trigger the same pen-
alties.  Second,  when  Concepcion  was  initially  sentenced, 
he qualified as a “career offender.”  The career offender pro-
vision, together with other enhancements, increased Con-
cepcion’s Guidelines range from 57 to 71 months to 262 to 
327 months. 

Both  of  these  features  of  Concepcion’s  sentencing  have
since been altered.  Just one year after Concepcion was sen-
tenced, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 to
correct the harsh disparities between crack and powder co-
caine  sentencing.  Section  2  of  that  Act  increased  the 
amount of crack cocaine needed to trigger the 5-to-40-year
sentencing range from 5 grams to 28 grams.  §2(a)(2), 124 
Stat. 2372.  The Sentencing Commission then retroactively
amended the Sentencing Guidelines to lower the Guidelines
range  for  crack-cocaine  offenses,  but  that  amendment  did 
not  benefit  all  prisoners  serving  sentences  handed  down 
during the 100-to-1 regime. See United States Sentencing 
Commission, Guidelines Manual App. C, Amdt. 750 (Supp.
Nov. 2011) (USSG).  Concepcion was not eligible for retro-
active  relief  under  that  2011  Sentencing  Commission’s
amendment because he was sentenced under the career of-
fender enhancement, but he became eligible to have his sen-
tence reduced in 2018, when Congress passed the First Step
Act.  The First Step Act authorized district courts to “im-
pose a reduced sentence” for qualifying movants “as if sec-
tions 2 and 3 of the Fair Sentencing Act . . . were in effect 
at  the  time  the  covered  offense  was  committed.”    Pub.  L. 
115–391, §404(b), 132 Stat. 5222. 

B 
Concepcion filed a pro se motion under the First Step Act