WASHINGTON (NEWSnet/AP) — U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that thousands of low-level drug dealers are ineligible for shortened prison terms under a Trump-era bipartisan criminal justice overhaul.

The justices took the case of Mark Pulsifer, an Iowa man convicted of distributing at least 50 grams of methamphetamine, to settle a dispute among federal courts over the meaning of the word “and” in a provision of the 2018 First Step Act.

The law’s “safety valve” detail is intended to spare low-level, nonviolent drug dealers who agree to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors from having to face often lengthy mandatory sentences.

Some courts had concluded the use of the word indeed means “and,” but others decided that it means “or.” A defendant’s eligibility for a shorter sentence depended on the outcome.

“Today, we agree with the Government’s view of the criminal-history provision,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the majority in the 6-3 decision.

In dissent, Justice Neil Gorsuch referred to First Step Act as possibly “the most significant criminal-justice reform bill in a generation.” But under the court’s decision, thousands more people in the federal criminal justice system will be denied a chance for a reduced sentence.

Nearly 6,000 people convicted of drug trafficking in the 2021 budget year alone are in the pool of those who might have been eligible for reduced sentences, according to data compiled by U.S. Sentencing Commission.

The provision lists three criteria for allowing judges to forgo a mandatory minimum sentence that basically looks to the severity of prior crimes. Congress wrote the section in the negative so a judge may exercise discretion in sentencing if a defendant “does not have” three sorts of criminal history.

The case is Pulsifer v. U.S., 22-340.

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