Fernandez v. United States · ¶108

Gonzalez is equally inapposite. There, we held that prisoners cannot use motions for “relief from a final judgment” under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b) to circumvent the statutory limitations on second-or-successive habeas applications. 545 U. S., at 528. But Rule 60(b), like § 1983, is a general mechanism for civil relief. It allows federal courts to “relieve a party . . . from a final judgment” for “any . . . reason that justifes relief.” Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 60(b)(6). It is a far cry from § 3582(c)(1)(A), which, like § 2255, specifically authorizes release from prison. Just like Preiser, then, Gonzalez's interpretation of a general civil provision has nothing to say about § 3582(c)(1)(A)'s specific relief scheme and whether Congress meant for it to be cancelled out by an implicit habeas-review bar.

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