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Page Number: 8.0

6 

LORA v. UNITED STATES 

Opinion of the Court 

machinegun in the course of a subsection (c)(1) violation, for 
example.  Subsection (c), because of the machinegun, would 
command that “the person shall be sentenced to a term of
imprisonment of not less than 30 years.”  §924(c)(1)(B)(ii).
Subsection  (j),  because  of  the  voluntary  manslaughter,
would  command  that,  per  §1112,  the  person  “shall  be  . . . 
imprisoned not more than 15 years.”  §§924(j)(2), 1112(b).
To fashion a sentence “not less than 30 years” and “not more
than  15  years”—that  is,  to  obey  both  subsections  (c)  and 
(j)—is  impossible.  And  Congress  has  not  required  that 
unachievable  result.  Instead,  subsection  (j)  supplies  its 
own  comprehensive  set  of  penalties  that  apply  instead  of 
subsection (c)’s.

To avert potential conflict between subsections (c) and (j), 
the Government tries to knit the two provisions together in
a very particular way.  In the Government’s view, a court 
sentencing a subsection (j) defendant should jump to sub-
section (c), apply the penalties listed there, then jump back 
to  subsection  (j)  and  add  the  penalties  listed  there,  then
jump  back  to  subsection  (c)  and  impose  the  consecutive- 
sentence mandate listed in that subsection.  But nothing in
subsection (j) calls for such calisthenics.
  To assuage that concern, the Government maintains that 
Congress has done this elsewhere; it says that another pro-
vision, §924(c)(5), operates this way.  Tr. of Oral Arg. 27, 31.
Even if §924(c)(5) does work in that fashion—which we do 
not decide—the Government’s argument only underscores
that subsection (j) does not. 

Under  §924(c)(5),  a  person  who,  inter  alia,  uses  armor 
piercing  ammunition  during  and  in  relation  to  a  crime  of 
violence or drug trafficking crime: 

“shall . . . 
“(A)  be  sentenced  to  a  term  of  imprisonment  of  not

less than 15 years; and