Edward Dorsey, Sr., Petitioner v. United States

Decided June 21, 2012. Stephen Gerald Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 11-5683 · 567 U.S. 260 (2012) · Cited 1,010 times

Holding

The Fair Sentencing Act’s new, lower mandatory minimums apply to the post-Act sentencing of pre-Act offenders.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 5–4.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Warden v. Marrero · 417 U.S. 653 (1974)
• Hertz v. Woodman · 218 U.S. 205 (1910)
• Kimbrough v. United States · 552 U.S. 85 (2007)
• Great Northern Railway Co. v. United States · 208 U.S. 452 (1908)
• Lockhart v. United States · 546 U.S. 142 (2005)
• Marcello v. Bonds · 349 U.S. 302 (1955)
• United States v. Booker · 543 U.S. 220 (2005)
• Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp. · 429 U.S. 252 (1977)
• Morton v. Mancari · 417 U.S. 535 (1974)
• Collins v. Youngblood · 497 U.S. 37 (1990)
• Calder v. Bull · 3 U.S. 386 (1798)
• Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena · 515 U.S. 200 (1995)
• United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co. · 200 U.S. 321 (1906)
• Clark v. Martinez · 543 U.S. 371 (2005)
• Deal v. United States · 508 U.S. 129 (1993)
• Posadas v. National City Bank · 296 U.S. 497 (1936)
• Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. v. Epstein · 516 U.S. 367 (1996)
• Hamdan v. Rumsfeld · 548 U.S. 557 (2006)
• Neal v. United States · 516 U.S. 284 (1996)
• Reichelderfer v. Quinn · 287 U.S. 315 (1932)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Hewitt v. United States · 606 U.S. 419 (2025)
• Brown v. United States · 602 U.S. 101 (2024)
• Financial Oversight and Management Bd. for Puerto Rico v. Aurelius Investment, LLC · 590 U.S. 448 (2020)
• Terry v. United States · 593 U.S. 486 (2021)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

Explore from here

Stephen Gerald Breyer’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2012). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).