Rico v. United States · ¶29

The government's premises here may be sound, but its conclusion is not. Congress may sometimes legislate against the backdrop of the common law. We can also assume for argument's sake that the government is right about the common-law rule and courts generally paused the clock on a defendant's sentence and its attendant conditions when he escaped from prison and remained at large. But, as we have seen, the government seeks a very different rule here. Its proposed rule does not stop any clock or merely ensure a defendant does not take advantage of his abscondment. It imposes a new punishment on him by automatically extending his term of supervised release.

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