Johnson v. United States, 529 U.S. 694, 9 (2000)

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702

JOHNSON v. UNITED STATES

Opinion of the Court

Inc., 511 U. S. 298, 304-307 (1994). Neither is there any indication of retroactive purpose in the omission of an express effective date from the statute. The omission simply remits us to the general rule that when a statute has no effective date, "absent a clear direction by Congress to the contrary, [it] takes effect on the date of its enactment." GozlonPeretz, 498 U. S., at 404.4

Nor, finally, has Congress given us anything expressly identifying the relevant conduct in a way that would point to retroactive intent. It may well be that Congress, like the Sixth Circuit, believed that § 3583(h) would naturally govern sentencing proceedings for violations of supervised release that took place after the statute's enactment, simply because the violation was the occasion for imposing the sanctions.5 But Congress gave us no clear indication to this effect, and we have already rejected that theory; the relevant conduct is the initial offense. In sum, there being no contrary intent, our longstanding presumption directs that § 3583(h) applies only to cases in which that initial offense occurred after the effective date of the amendment, September 13, 1994.

Given this conclusion, the case does not turn on whether Johnson is worse off under § 3583(h) than he previously was under § 3583(e)(3), as subsection (h) does not apply, and the ex post facto question does not arise. The case turns, in-4 Indeed, the Sentencing Guidelines identify the effective date of § 3583(h) as September 13, 1994. United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual § 7B1.3, comment., n. 2 (Nov. 1998) (USSG). So, too, have the federal courts. See, e. g., United States v. Hale, 107 F. 3d 526, 529, n. 3 (CA7 1997).

5 The failure to specify an effective date evidences at least arguable diffidence on this point. Another section of the same Act that added § 3583(h) amended 18 U. S. C. § 3553 to limit the applicability of some statutory minimum sentences. See § 80001, 108 Stat. 1985. That amendment, the section made explicit, "shall apply to all sentences imposed on or after the 10th day beginning after the date of enactment of this Act." § 80001(c), 108 Stat. 1986.

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