Archive | FSA

In United States v. Brooker (Zullo), No. 19-3218, 2020 WL 5739712 (2d Cir. Sept. 25, 2020), the Second Circuit, in an opinion by Judge Calabresi (joined by Judges Winter and Chin), held that the First Step Act of 2018 (“FSA”) empowers district courts evaluating motions for compassionate release to consider any “extraordinary and compelling reasons” for granting release or a sentence reduction, not just those criteria set forth by the Sentencing Commission in guidelines that have been unmodified since the FSA’s passage. The Circuit emphasized that the FSA was intended to expand and expedite compassionate release by allowing defendants to make motions directly to the district courts—thus ending the BOP’s role as the “sole arbiter” of such claims—and by permitting those courts greater discretion in granting release. Accordingly, the Circuit held that the constraints imposed by previously-enacted Sentencing Guideline § 1B1.13 do not apply to compassionate release motions brought …