Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21-5726_5iel.pdf
Page Number: 4

Cite as:  596 U. S. ____ (2022) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the 
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to 
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that 
corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

_________________ 

No. 21–5726 
_________________ 

DEXTER EARL KEMP, PETITIONER v. 
UNITED STATES 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 
APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT 

[June 13, 2022] 

JUSTICE THOMAS delivered the opinion of the Court. 
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(1) allows a party to
seek  relief  from  a  final  judgment  based  on,  among  other 
things, a “mistake.”  The question presented is whether the 
term “mistake” includes a judge’s error of law.  We conclude,
based on the text, structure, and history of Rule 60(b), that
a  judge’s  errors  of  law  are  indeed  “mistake[s]”  under
Rule 60(b)(1). 

I 
In 2011, a federal jury convicted Dexter Kemp of various
drug and gun crimes, and he was sentenced to 420 months 
in prison.  Kemp, along with seven codefendants, appealed.
The Eleventh Circuit consolidated their appeals and, in No-
vember  2013,  affirmed  their  convictions  and  sentences. 
United States v. Gray, 544 Fed. Appx. 870.  Kemp did not
seek rehearing of the Eleventh Circuit’s judgment or peti-
tion this Court for certiorari.  Two of Kemp’s codefendants 
did  seek  rehearing,  which  the  Eleventh  Circuit  denied  in
May 2014.

In April 2015, Kemp moved the U. S. District Court for