Cite as: 531 U. S. 198 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
dence suggests that any amount of actual jail time has Sixth Amendment significance. E. g., Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U. S. 25. Moreover, decisions on the right to jury trial in a criminal case, see id., at 29, do not control the question whether a showing of prejudice, in the context of an ineffective-assistance claim, requires a significant prison term increase. The Seventh Circuit's rule is not well considered in any event, because there is no obvious dividing line by which to measure how much longer a sentence must be for the increase to constitute substantial prejudice. Although the amount by which a defendant's sentence is increased by a particular decision may be a factor in determining whether counsel's performance in failing to argue the point constitutes ineffective assistance, under a determinate system of constrained discretion such as the Sentencing Guidelines it cannot serve as a bar to a showing of prejudice. Here the Court considers the sentencing calculation itself, which resulted from a ruling that had it been error, would have been correctable on appeal. The question of deficient performance is not before the Court, but it is clear that prejudice flowed from the asserted error in sentencing. Pp. 202-204.
(b) The Government's various arguments for affirming the Seventh Circuit's judgment were neither raised nor resolved below, and are outside the questions presented by the petition for certiorari. Whether these issues remain open, and if so whether they have merit, are questions for the lower courts to determine in the first instance. P. 205. 182 F. 3d 921, reversed and remanded.
Kennedy, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.
Michael L. Waldman argued the cause and filed briefs for petitioner.
Deputy Solicitor General Dreeben argued the cause for the United States. With him on the brief were Solicitor General Waxman, Assistant Attorney General Robinson, Matthew D. Roberts, and Joel M. Gershowitz.*
Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court.
The issue presented rests upon the initial assumption, which we accept for analytic purposes, that the trial court
*David M. Zlotnick, Peter Goldberger, and Kyle O'Dowd filed a brief for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers et al. as amici curiae urging reversal.
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