U.S. Supreme Court: RELEASE DATE.

Lopez v. Davis 121 S.Ct. 714 (2001). A federal prisoner convicted of possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus challenging a federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) regulation. The regulation categorically denied early release to prisoners, based on completion of a drug treatment program, if a prisoner's current offense was a felony attended by the carrying, possession or use of a firearm. The district court granted the petition and the appeals court reversed. The United States Supreme Court held that the BOP had the discretion, under the governing federal statute, to promulgate a regulation that categorically denies early release to prisoners whose felonies involved the use of a firearm. The court noted that the statute provided that the BOP "may" reduce the sentence of a nonviolent offender who has successfully completed a drug treatment program, and the statute did not limit the considerations the BOP could use to guide its decisions, and the BOP was not requir ed to make only individualized determinations or to consider only postconviction conduct. (Federal Bureau of Prisons)