54
Opinion of the Court
In these circumstances—where text, structure, and history fail to establish that the Government's position is unambiguously correct—we apply the rule of lenity and resolve the ambiguity in Granderson's favor. See, e. g., Bass, 404 U. S., at 347-349. We decide that the "original sentence" that sets the duration of the revocation sentence is the applicable Guidelines sentence of imprisonment, not the revoked term of probation.12
IV
We turn, finally, to the Government's argument that Granderson's theory, and the Court of Appeals' analysis, are fatally flawed because the Guidelines specify not a term but a range—in this case, 0-6 months. Calculating the minimum revocation sentence as one-third of that range, the mandatory minimum term of imprisonment would be 0-2 months, the Government asserts, which would permit a perverse result: A resentencing court could revoke a drug possessor's sentence of probation, and then impose no sentence at all. Recognizing this curiosity, lower courts have used not 0-6 months as their starting place, but the top of that range, as
12 Justice Kennedy suggests that our interpretation of the proviso "read[s] a criminal statute against a criminal defendant," post, at 67, and that to the extent the rule of lenity is applicable, it would "deman[d] the interpretation" advanced in his opinion—that the proviso establishes a mandatory minimum sentence of probation, one-third as long as the sentence of probation initially imposed, post, at 69. We note that Grander-son, the criminal defendant in this case, does not urge the interpretation Justice Kennedy presents. More to the point, both of Justice Kennedy's assertions presuppose that his interpretation of the proviso is a permissible one. For reasons set out above, we think it is not. See supra, at 45, and n. 4.
Justice Scalia suggests that on our interpretation of the proviso, the mandatory minimum revocation sentence should include a fine as well as a term of imprisonment. See post, at 58. The term of probation, however, was imposed in lieu of a sentence of imprisonment, not in lieu of a fine. Revocation of the sentence of probation, we think, implies replacing the sentence of probation with a sentence of imprisonment, but does not require changing an unrevoked sentence earlier imposed.
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