United States v. Bowers

Although it has been over five years since the Supreme Courts thoroughgoing reform of federal sentencing law in United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (2005), a number of open questions remain regarding that decisions ramifications. In particular, this case requires us to decide Bookers impact -- if any -- on our jurisdiction to hear the appeal from a district courts decision to reduce (or decline to reduce) a final sentence under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) ("§ 3582(c)(2)") and/or Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 35(b) ("Rule 35(b)"). Because the Supreme Court has recently clarified that Booker does not apply to such sentence-reduction proceedings, see Dillon v. United States, 130 S.Ct. 2683 (2010), we conclude that we lack jurisdiction to hear a defendants appeal of the grant or denial of a sentence reduction pursuant to those sections on Booker "reasonableness" grounds. Accordingly, we dismiss this appeal for want of jurisdiction.