Cite as: 511 U. S. 39 (1994)
Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting
Here, as in other portions of its opinion, the Court expresses concern with the apparent harshness of the result if "original sentence" is interpreted to mean the sentence of probation initially imposed on a defendant.8 In some cases the result may indeed appear harsh. Yet harsh punishment, in itself, is neither a legitimate ground for invalidating a statute nor cause for injecting ambiguity into a statute that is susceptible to principled statutory construction. See Callanan v. United States, 364 U. S. 587, 596 (1961) ("The rule [of lenity] comes into operation at the end of the process of construing what Congress has expressed, not at the beginning as an overriding consideration of being lenient to wrongdoers"). A straightforward reading of § 3565(a) may in some cases call for imposition of severe punishment, but it does not produce "a result so absurd or glaringly unjust, as to raise a reasonable doubt about Congress' intent." Chapman, 500 U. S., at 463-464 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).
The Court's interpretation of § 3565(a), finally, creates an incurable uncertainty: It offers no sound basis for choosing
8 The Court expresses disbelief that Congress could have intended to authorize punishment for drug-possessing probationers so much more severe than the punishment authorized for the probationer's original offense. Ante, at 48-49. I think the Court misses two points. First, as the Court itself seems to recognize, the maximum punishment authorized for respondent's original offense is not the Guidelines range, but the maximum statutory sentence. See 18 U. S. C. §§ 1703(a), 3553(b), 3559(a)(4), and 3581(b)(4). In respondent's case, the punishment authorized for his original offense is therefore exactly equal to the punishment authorized for his probation violation—five years' imprisonment. See § 1703(a). Second, Congress provided for equally harsh revocation sentences in the subsections preceding and following § 3565(a). By allowing sentencing courts to impose "any other sentence that was available . . . at the time of the initial sentencing," §§ 3565(a)(2) and (b), Congress authorized these courts to impose the maximum statutory sentence upon revocation of probation. Thus, if respondent's probation had been revoked pursuant to §§ 3565(a)(2) or (b), he would have faced the same maximum revocation sentence he faces under § 3565(a)—five years' imprisonment.
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