Cite as: 532 U. S. 59 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
judge draw the proper inferences from the procedural descriptions provided.
In addition, factual nuance may closely guide the legal decision, with legal results depending heavily upon an understanding of the significance of case-specific details. See Koon v. United States, supra, at 98-99 (District Court's detailed understanding of the case before it and experience with other sentencing cases favored deferential review); Cooter & Gell v. Hartmarx Corp., 496 U. S. 384, 403-404 (1990) (fact-intensive nature of decision whether to impose sanctions under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 made deferential review appropriate); Pierce v. Underwood, 487 U. S. 552, 560 (1988) (District Court's familiarity with facts of case warranted deferential review of determination whether Government's legal position was "substantially justified"). In a case like this one, for example, under Seventh Circuit doctrine, the District Judge usefully might have considered the factual details of the crimes at issue in order to determine whether factual connections among those crimes, rather than, say, administrative convenience, led Wisconsin to sentence Buford simultaneously and concurrently for the robbery and drug offenses. See United States v. Joseph, 50 F. 3d, at 404; United States v. Russell, 2 F. 3d 200, 204 (CA7 1993).
Nor can we place determinative weight upon the heightened uniformity benefits that Buford contends will result from de novo review. The legal question at issue is a minor, detailed, interstitial question of sentencing law, buried in a judicial interpretation of an application note to a Sentencing Guideline. That question is not a generally recurring, purely legal matter, such as interpreting a set of legal words, say, those of an individual guideline, in order to determine their basic intent. Nor is that question readily resolved by reference to general legal principles and standards alone. Rather, the question at issue grows out of, and is bounded by, case-specific detailed factual circumstances. And the
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