On August 24, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued a series of opinions in the case of United States v. Holcomb that in effect affirm its earlier ruling that the language in the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 governing (lower) mandatory minimum punishments applies only to criminal conduct that occurred on or after August 3, 2010. This ruling is contrary to the position recently taken by Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr. on behalf of the government in his July 15, 2011 memorandum to all federal prosecutors. Because the Seventh Circuit’s ruling is now at odds with a few other circuits (but in conformity with others), and because all of the active judges on the Seventh Circuit participated in this case, it appears we now have a clean split among the circuits on this issue. It is anticipated that the defendant in the Seventh Circuit case will request review by the Supreme Court.
Memo of Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr. dated July 15, 2011