The verdict will allow the man, Justin Taylor, and other defendants who have been sentenced to an additional five to ten years in prison for attempted robbery under the Hobbs Act, to now challenge those convictions and sentences.
The Hobbs Act is a federal law that made it a crime to obstruct or influence interstate trade “by robbery or extortion” when “caused by the unlawful use of actual or threatened violence, coercion or intimidation.”
Writing for the majority, Judge Neil Gorsuch said that while Taylor could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, Congress “has not authorized the courts to sentence him and sentence him to a further prison term.”
Gorsuch seemed to criticize the separate disagreements written by Judges Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
Referring to an allegation made by Thomas, Gorsuch wrote in a footnote that “not even the prosecutors whom Judge Thomas is interested in are seeking such a thing.”
Alito, Gorsuch said, put forward an argument for which the parties “had not whispered a word”.
This story has been updated with additional information.
