Whether the safety valve criteria under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f)(1) are conjunctive or disjunctive

QUESTIONS PRESENTED FOR REVIEW On December 21, 2018, Congress enacted the First Step Act of 2018 (P.L. 115391). In Section 402 of the First Step Act, Congress amended subsection (f)(1) of the statute commonly known as the “safety valve,” mandating that “the court shall impose a sentence pursuant to guidelines . . . without regard to any statutory minimum sentence, if the court finds . . . that—(1) the defendant does not have—(A) more than 4 criminal history points, excluding any criminal history points resulting from a 1-point offense, as determined under the sentencing guidelines; (B) a prior 3-point offense, as determined under the sentencing guidelines; and (C) a prior 2-point violent offense, as determined under the sentencing guidelines.” 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f)(1) (emphasis added). This petition presents two inter-related questions with regard to the amendments to the Safety Valve statute made by section 402 of the First Step Act. Questions Presented: 1. Whether the criteria of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f)(1), as amended, are to be read in the conjunctive requiring the district court to impose a sentence pursuant to the Sentencing Guidelines, without regard to any statutory minimum sentence, unless the defendant meets all three criteria: “(A) more than 4 criminal history points, excluding any criminal history points resulting from a 1-point offense, ...[and] (B) a prior 3-point offense ... and (C) a prior 2-point violent offense”? a. Assuming the criteria are read in the conjunctive and that the Safety Valve applies unless the defendant meets all three criteria, does the amended definition of safety valve under § 3553(f)(1) apply equally to , which apply a two-level downward adjustment to defendants convicted of a drug trafficking offense who meet the Safety Valve criteria? i INTERESTED PARTIES There are no