The justices reversed the Ninth Circuit and held that federal supervised release does not automatically extend when a defendant absconds.

What happened

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the Ninth Circuit's rule that a defendant's abscondment automatically extends a term of supervised release, holding that the Sentencing Reform Act gives courts tools to punish violations but not that one.

Writing for the court, Justice Neil Gorsuch said Congress gave judges several ways to respond when defendants fail to report or break release conditions. But, he wrote, "automatically extending a term of supervised release is not among them."

The ruling reversed a Ninth Circuit decision that had allowed Isabel Rico's January 2022 state drug offense to count as a supervised-release violation even though her court-ordered term was set to expire in June 2021. The appeals court had reasoned that Rico's abscondment tolled the clock until federal authorities found her in 2023.

The Supreme Court said that description was a misnomer. Under the Ninth Circuit's approach, the defendant did not stop being subject to release conditions; instead, the rule extended the period beyond what the sentencing judge had ordered. The court said the statute specifies when supervised release begins, sets maximum terms, authorizes revocation and new supervised-release terms, and includes targeted extension and tolling provisions.

Justice Gorsuch's opinion said those detailed provisions cut against importing an automatic abscondment rule. The court also rejected the government's policy concern that probation officers may sometimes discover abscondment too late, saying that complaint belongs with Congress rather than the court.

The decision resolves a circuit split over whether abscondment automatically extends supervised release. The court sent the case back for further proceedings, leaving any harmless-error question for remand because the Ninth Circuit had not addressed it and the government had not pressed it.

Justice Samuel Alito dissented. He said the case was simpler than the majority suggested and that the sentencing judge could lawfully consider Rico's January 2022 drug offense when imposing a 16-month prison term and a new two-year supervised-release term.