148
Opinion of the Court
Sandra Jean Stewart, Assistant Attorney General of Alabama, argued the cause for petitioner. With her on the briefs was Bill Pryor, Attorney General.
Jeffrey A. Lamken argued the cause for the United States as amicus curiae urging reversal. With him on the brief were Acting Solicitor General Underwood, Acting Assistant Attorney General Keeney, and Deputy Solicitor General Dreeben.
Mark John Christensen, by appointment of the Court, 531 U. S. 1141, argued the cause and filed a brief for respondent.*
Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court.† Forty-eight States, the Federal Government, and the District of Columbia (all of which, for simplicity, we shall call "States") have entered into the Interstate Agreement on Detainers (Agreement), 18 U. S. C. App. § 2, p. 692, an interstate compact. The Agreement creates uniform procedures for lodging and executing a detainer, i. e., a legal order that requires a State in which an individual is currently imprisoned to hold that individual when he has finished serving his sentence so that he may be tried by a different State for a different crime.
The Agreement provides for expeditious delivery of the prisoner to the receiving State for trial prior to the termination of his sentence in the sending State. And it seeks to minimize the consequent interruption of the prisoner's ongoing prison term. In particular, Article IV(c) specifies that the receiving State shall begin the prisoner's "trial . . . within one hundred and twenty days of the arrival of the prisoner in the receiving State." At the same time, Article IV(e) prohibits return of the individual to the sending State before that trial is complete. It says:
*Mary E. Hunley and Alexander Taylor filed a brief for the National Association of Extradition Officials as amicus curiae urging reversal.
†Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas join all but Part II-B of this opinion.
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