After petitioner Stinson pleaded guilty to a five-count indictment resulting from his robbery of a bank, the District Court sentenced him as a career offender under United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual 4B1.1, which requires, inter alia, that "the instant offense of conviction [be] a crime of violence." The court found that Stinsons offense of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, 18 U.S.C. 922(g), was a "crime of violence" as that term was then defined in USSG 4B1.2(1). While the case was on appeal, however, the Sentencing Commission promulgated Amendment 433, which added a sentence to the 4B1.2 commentary that expressly excluded the felon-in-possession offense from the "crime of violence" definition. The Court of Appeals nevertheless affirmed Stinsons sentence, adhering to its earlier interpretation that the crime in question was categorically a crime of violence and holding that the commentary to the Guidelines is not binding on the federal courts.

Held:

The Guidelines Manuals commentary which interprets or explains a gui