{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-booker-submit-amicus-brief-to-supreme-court-in-maxwell-v-dinis", "Durbin, Booker Submit Amicus Brief To Supreme Court In Maxwell V. Dinis", "2026-08-12", "2026", "2026-08", "Democrat", "Senate", "IL", "Richard J. Durbin", "D000563", "www.durbin.senate.gov", "durbin", "https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "The lawmakers encourage the Supreme Court to reverse the Fifth Circuit\u2019s judgment, which would undermine historic criminal justice reform legislation\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) submitted an amicus brief in the Supreme Court\u2019s forthcoming case, Maxwell v. Dinis, which will determine whether federal prisoners can use habeas corpus to enforce the earned time credit provisions established by the First Step Act.\n\n\u201cIn December 2018, a bipartisan majority of both chambers of Congress passed, and President Donald J. Trump signed into law, the First Step Act of 2018. The Act is a historic and bipartisan piece of legislation, ushering in momentous correctional, sentencing, and criminal justice reforms,\u201d began the Senators.\n\n\u201cThe Fifth Circuit\u2019s judgment in this case threatens to undermine Congress\u2019s groundbreaking approach to prison reform\u2026 Nothing in the statutory text, congressional intent, or this Court\u2019s precedent supports that result,\u201d continued the Senators.\n\nThe Senators argued that Congress designed and enacted the First Step Act to expand access to prelease custody, as well as intended for the First Step Act\u2019s incentive system to be enforceable and renewable.\n\n\u201cThe Fifth Circuit\u2019s judgment should be reversed,\u201d concluded the Senators.\n\nFor a PDF of the Senators\u2019 amicus brief to the Supreme Court, click here.\n\nChampioned by Durbin, Booker, and U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Mike Lee (R-UT), the First Step Act was signed into law in 2018 and serves as a beacon for \u201csmart on crime\u201d policies.\n\nThe law made the Fair Sentencing Act\u2019s reforms retroactive, and:\n\nRequired the Department of Justice to develop a risk and needs assessment system to evaluate the recidivism risk of all prisoners, place them in programs and activities to reduce risk, and permit early transition into prerelease custody based on earned time credits;\n\nReduced mandatory minimum sentences for some drug trafficking offenses;\n\nExpanded the safety valve to allow judges to sentence low-level, nonviolent drug offenders with minor criminal histories to less than the required mandatory minimums; and\n\nAuthorized incarcerated individuals to file compassionate release motions in federal court.\n\nThese reforms have been tremendously successful. As noted in a January 2024 hearing, of the 44,671 incarcerated adults then-released under First Step Act reforms, only 9.7 percent had been arrested for new crimes. By comparison, the overall Bureau of Prisons recidivism rate stood at around 45 percent. To date, there have been 4,166 retroactive sentence reductions and 4,995 compassionate release motions granted.\n\n-30-", 1, "2026-08-14T06:13:05Z", "2026-08-14T06:14:08Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-booker-submit-amicus-brief-to-supreme-court-in-maxwell-v-dinis"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7845689542591572, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}