42
Opinion of the Court
As we have observed, "the Guidelines bind judges and courts in the exercise of their uncontested responsibility to pass sentence in criminal cases." Mistretta v. United States, supra, at 391. See also Burns v. United States, 501 U. S. 129, 133 (1991). The most obvious operation of this principle is with respect to the Guidelines themselves. The Sentencing Reform Act provides that, unless the sentencing court finds an aggravating or mitigating factor of a kind, or to a degree, not given adequate consideration by the Commission, a circumstance not applicable in this case, "[t]he court shall impose a sentence of the kind, and within the range," established by the applicable guidelines. 18 U. S. C. §§ 3553(a)(4), (b). The principle that the Guidelines Manual is binding on federal courts applies as well to policy statements. In Williams v. United States, 503 U. S. 193, 201 (1992), we said that "[w]here . . . a policy statement prohibits a district court from taking a specified action, the statement is an authoritative guide to the meaning of the applicable Guideline." There, the District Court had departed upward from the Guidelines' sentencing range based on prior arrests that did not result in criminal convictions. A policy statement, however, prohibited a court from basing a departure on a prior arrest record alone. USSG § 4A1.3, p. s. We held that failure to follow the policy statement resulted in a sentence "imposed as a result of an incorrect application of the sentencing guidelines" under 18 U. S. C. § 3742(f)(1) that should be set aside on appeal unless the error was harmless. 503 U. S., at 201, 203.
In the case before us, the Court of Appeals determined that these principles do not apply to commentary. 957 F. 2d, at 814-815. Its conclusion that the commentary now being considered is not binding on the courts was error. The commentary added by Amendment 433 was interpretive and explanatory of the Guideline defining "crime of violence." Commentary which functions to "interpret [a] guideline or explain how it is to be applied," USSG § 1B1.7, controls, and
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