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Opinion of the Court
attempt to interpret the statutory term "nonviolent offense"; the court in that case did not address "whether the BOP may, as an exercise of its discretion, . . . look to sentencing factors in deciding which individuals among statutorily eligible inmates are appropriate candidates for early release." 186 F. 3d, at 1095. Facing that issue, the Court of Appeals held such an exercise of discretion proper. Ibid.
The Courts of Appeals have again divided, now over the permissibility of the Bureau's current (1997) regulation. The Tenth and Eleventh Circuits, in line with their prior decisions invalidating the 1995 rule, have concluded that § 3621(e)(2)(B) permits no categorical exclusions of nonvio-lent offenders based on sentence enhancements. Ward v. Booker, 202 F. 3d 1249, 1256-1257 (CA10 2000); Kilpatrick v. Houston, 197 F. 3d 1134, 1135 (CA11 1999). The Ninth Circuit, on the other hand, has agreed with the Eighth Circuit that precedent invalidating the 1995 rule does not control and that, in 1997, the BOP permissibly exercised its discretion under § 3621(e)(2)(B) when it categorically excluded from early release consideration inmates who possessed a firearm in connection with their nonviolent offenses. Bowen v. Hood, 202 F. 3d 1211, 1218-1220 (2000).
We granted certiorari to resolve this conflict, 529 U. S. 1086 (2000), and now affirm the judgment of the Eighth Circuit.
II
The statute provides: "The period a prisoner convicted of a nonviolent offense remains in custody after successfully completing a treatment program may be reduced by the Bureau of Prisons . . . ." 18 U. S. C. § 3621(e)(2)(B). The measure thus categorically denies early release eligibility to inmates convicted of violent offenses. The question we address is whether the Bureau has discretion to delineate, as an additional category of ineligible inmates, those whose current offense is a felony involving a firearm. 28 CFR § 550.58(a)(1)(vi)(B) (2000).
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