Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
The 1984 “three strikes” law mandates a 15-year sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm if the defendant has been previously convicted of three violent felonies or “serious drug offenses,” and the case dealt with when that mandatory minimum sentence should be applied when it comes to drug crimes.
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… Justice Alito wrote that the ACCA “requires sentencing courts to examine the law as it was when the defendant violated it, even if that law is subsequently amended.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote the dissent, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, and in part by Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Justice Jackson wrote that the relevant text of the act “establishes that courts should apply the drug schedules in effect at the time of the federal firearms offense that triggers ACCA’s potential application.”
“Nothing else — not precedent, context or purpose — requires a different result,” she wrote.