Greenlaw v. United States

Greenlaw v. United States
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 15, 2008 Decided June 23, 2008
Full case name	Michael Greenlaw, aka Mikey, Petitioner v. United States
Docket no.	07-330
Citations	554 U.S. 237 (more) 128 S. Ct. 2559; 171 L. Ed. 2d 399; 2008 U.S. LEXIS 5259; 76 U.S.L.W. 4533; 21 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 421
Decision	Opinion
Case history
Prior	481 F.3d 601 (8th Cir. 2007); cert. granted, 552 U.S. 1087 (2008).
Holding
A federal appeals court may not sua sponte increase a criminal sentence in the absence of an appeal filed by the government.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Antonin Scalia Anthony Kennedy · David Souter Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg Stephen Breyer · Samuel Alito
Case opinions
Majority	Ginsburg, joined by Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas
Concurrence	Breyer (in judgment)
Dissent	Alito, joined by Stevens; Breyer (Parts I, II, and III)
Laws applied
18 U.S.C. § 3742; Fed. R. App. P. 3, 4, 26

Greenlaw v. United States, 554 U.S. 237 (2008), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that a federal appeals court may not sua sponte increase a defendant's sentence unless the government first files a notice of appeal.^[1]