Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 788

529US3

Unit: $U56

[09-28-01 09:22:19] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 529 U. S. 694 (2000)

713

Kennedy, J., concurring in part

provisions suggests that the possibility of supervised release
following imprisonment was meant to be eliminated.13

In sum, from a purely textual perspective, the more plau-
sible reading of § 3583(e)(3) before its amendment and the
addition of subsection (h) leaves open the possibility of su-
pervised release after reincarceration. Pre-Guidelines prac-
tice, linguistic continuity from the old scheme to the current
one, and the obvious thrust of congressional sentencing pol-
icy conﬁrm that, in applying the law as before the enactment
of subsection (h), district courts have the authority to order
terms of supervised release following reimprisonment.

The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth

Circuit is

Afﬁrmed.

Justice Kennedy, concurring in part.
The Court holds that 18 U. S. C. § 3583(e)(3), as it stood
before the amendment adding what is now subsection (h),
permits a trial court to impose further incarceration followed
by a period of supervised release after revoking an earlier
In
supervised release because the conditions were violated.
my view this is the correct result. The subsection permits
a court to “require [a] person to serve in prison all or part
of the term of supervised release” originally imposed. 18
U. S. C. § 3583(e)(3) (1988 ed., Supp. V). This indicates that
after the right to be on supervised release has been revoked
there is yet an unexpired term of supervised release that can
be allocated, in the court’s discretion, in whole or in part
to conﬁnement and to release on such terms and conditions

13 Nor does our traditional rule of lenity in interpreting criminal statutes
demand a contrary result. Lenity applies only when the equipoise of com-
peting reasons cannot otherwise be resolved (not the case here), and in
any event the rule of lenity would be Delphic in this case. There is simply
no way to tell whether sentencing courts given the option of supervised
release will generally be more or less lenient in ﬁxing the second prison
sentence.