Opinion ID: 78565
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Government's Motion for Reconsideration

Text: On December 19, 2008, ten business days after the district court's order, the government filed a Motion for Reconsideration of the Court's Order to Reduce Defendant's Sentence Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2). The government's motion sought to have Phillips's 1989 sentence of 360 months reinstated based on United States v. James, 548 F.3d 983 (11th Cir.2008). [5] In James, this Court concluded that, in evaluating whether the crack-cocaine Amendment 706 reduced a defendant's base offense level, we look not to the base offense level for James's original sentence in 1989 but to the base offense level for the same amount of drugs at the time of the § 3582 motion. [6] And in Phillips's case, the government's motion argued the district court erred in applying the 1988 guidelines because under James the current guidelines apply, Amendment 706 did not lower Phillips's base offense level under the 2008 guidelines, and thus the court lacked authority under § 3582(c)(2) to modify Phillips's 1989 sentence.