Opinion ID: 3003338
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Effect of the 2007 Amendment Reducing

Text: the Guidelines’ Crack/Powder Disparity on Davis’ and Anthony’s Sentences Related to their Kimbrough argument, Davis and Anthony argue that they are entitled to resentencing under the Commission’s 2007 amendment to § 2D1.1, which reduced the sentencing disparity between crack- and powder-cocaine offenses. U.S.S.G. app. C, amend. 706 (Supp. 2007). We can easily dispense with this argument. The Commission’s policy is that a defendant already serving a sentence may not benefit from a guidelines amendment unless it “ha[s] the effect of lowering the defendant’s applicable guideline range.” U.S.S.G. § 1B1.10(a)(2)(B). Since Davis’ and Anthony’s sentences were determined by § 4B1.1, the 2007 amendment to § 2D1.1 does not lower their applicable guidelines ranges. See United States v. Forman, 553 F.3d 585, 589 (7th Cir. 2009) (per curiam) (“Amendment 706 provides no benefit to career offenders.”); Clay, 524 F.3d at 878-79 (“Although the recent amendments to the sentencing guidelines lowered the offense levels associated with Nos. 06-4101, 06-4376 & 07-1813 17 crack in the drug quantity table in U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1, they did not change the career offender provision in § 4B1.1 . . . .”). Further, the Commission’s policy on this point is not one that we can simply ignore, since Congress has declared that any sentence reductions based on a guidelines amendment must be “consistent with applicable policy statements issued by the Sentencing Commission.” 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2); see also United States v. Lawrence, 535 F.3d 631, 637 (7th Cir. 2008) (recognizing that a district court’s authority to reduce sentences under § 3582(c)(2) is limited by the Commission’s policy statements).