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The Supreme Court 2020 Term Foreword: Regime Change
Rodríguez, Cristina
Rodríguez, Cristina
Abstract
On the last day of oral argument this Term, in an atypical May convening, the Justices of the Supreme Court grappled with how to integrate two recent reforms to the federal sentencing regime in the case of Terry v. United States.1 In 2010, Congress had enacted the Fair Sentencing Act and reduced the by-then notorious i00:i sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses to i8:i. The Act was a triumph for criminal justice reformers after decades of advocacy highlighting the racially disproportionate and loaded nature of the disparity.