On June 20, the Supreme Court voted 7–2 to limit the factors that judges are allowed to consider when revoking supervised release.
The court majority, which ruled in favor of alleged supervised release violators, said in the complex ruling that judges must base such decisions on reasons specifically spelled out in a federal supervised release law, as opposed to a federal sentencing law.
Two justices dissented from the majority opinion in Esteras v. United States written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Another two justices concurred with the majority opinion only in part.
Supervised release is a form of post-prison monitoring, similar to parole. A prisoner is released from custody, but remains under restricted freedom for a set period. During that time, the person must follow specific conditions and be supervised by a probation officer. If those conditions are violated, the individual may be sent back to prison….