Obama signs the Fair Sentencing Act, cutting the crack-powder cocaine disparity

President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, reducing the crack-to-powder cocaine sentencing disparity from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1 — the first time Congress rolled back a mandatory minimum since 1970. The law raised the threshold for the 5-year mandatory minimum from 5 grams of crack to 28 grams, but applied only to future defendants. Sponsored by Senator Dick Durbin and Senator Jeff Sessions, the bill's bipartisan coalition foreshadowed the broader sentencing reform movement that would produce the First Step Act eight years later.