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Opening Word document…

Jolly concedes plain meaning goes neg.

Grady Jolly 22, senior Federal Judge Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 11/2/2022, “United States v. Palomares,” 52 F.4th 640

The ordinary meaning of "and," which § 3553(f)(1) uses to join the three subsections, is conjunctive. See, e.g., Antonin Scalia & Bryan A. [**5]  Garner, Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts 116-25 (2012). "Or" is disjunctive. Conjunctive/disjunctive canon, Black's Law Dictionary (10th ed. 2014) ("[I]n a legal instrument, and joins a conjunctive list to combine items, while or joins a disjunctive list to create alternatives."). Palomares points to this straightforward linguistic rule and insists that because Congress used the word "and," the government would need to prove that her criminal history included all the sub-sections, (A), (B), and (C). Or stated differently, because her criminal history only included (B), she is eligible for this sentencing relief. We cannot agree.

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