The Supreme Court upholds mandatory prison terms for some low-level drug dealers

By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has ruled that thousands of low-level drug dealers are ineligible for shortened prison terms under a Trump-era bipartisan criminal justice overhaul. The justices on Friday settled a dispute among federal courts over the meaning of the word “and” in a muddy provision of the 2018 First Step Act, using the case of an Iowa man convicted of distributing methamphetamine. The law’s so-called safety valve provision is meant to spare low-level, nonviolent drug dealers who agree to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors from having to face often longer mandatory sentences.