Opinion ID: 3039864
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: application to cardenas-juarez’s

Text: SENTENCE In imposing Cardenas-Juarez’s sentence, the district court determined that the safety valve provision of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) was advisory and the minimum sentence provision of 21 U.S.C. § 841 was mandatory; the mandatory minimum “trumped” the advisory safety valve, and therefore the court was precluded from applying the safety valve in any way. [4] As previously discussed, however, the advisory nature of the Guidelines does not make application of the § 3553(f) safety valve advisory. Section 3553(f) must still be applied in UNITED STATES v. CARDENAS-JUAREZ 19317 cases where its five eligibility requirements are met. See 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) (listing the following requirements: (1) no more than one criminal history point, or previous offense; (2) the absence of violence or the use of a firearm in connection with the offense; (3) no resulting death or serious bodily injury; (4) the defendant’s role as something other than an organizer, leader, manager, or supervisor, and the absence of a continuing criminal enterprise; and (5) the defendant’s truthful cooperation in telling the government everything he knows about the offense). Neither the parties nor the district court has ever contended that Cardenas-Juarez did not satisfy the five safety valve eligibility requirements. Therefore, the plain language of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) requires the district court to impose a sentence without regard to the mandatory minimums. As Cardenas-Juarez points out in his brief, “the ‘shall’ in the ‘safety valve’ language is directed not only at the phrase ‘impose a sentence pursuant to the guidelines,’ but also at the subsequent phrase ‘without regard to any statutory minimum sentence.’ ” Our holding today is not inconsistent with Booker. Section 3553(f) requires the district court to impose a sentence that “take[s] account of the [advisory] Guidelines together with other sentencing goals” outlined in § 3553(a). See Booker, 543 U.S. at 259. Furthermore, the simple inclusion of mandatory language in a portion of the Federal Sentencing Act does not render it invalid after Booker. Booker itself left mandatory language in place in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a): “The court shall impose a sentence sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to comply with the purposes set forth in paragraph (2) of this subsection.” 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) (West Supp. 2005) (emphasis added). The statutory safety valve of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) thus survives the Supreme Court’s holding in Booker, and district courts must continue, in accordance with congressional intent, to apply its relief from mandatory minimums in appropriate cases.