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8½-Year Sentence for American Who Fought for ISIS Is Too Lenient, Says Sixth Circuit

The district court had departed downward from the Sentencing Guidelines' recommended sentence of 30 to 50 years.

Eugene Volokh | 5.18.2026 8:01 AM

From Wednesday's decision by Judge Amul Thapar, joined by Judges Julia Gibbons and Joan Larsen, in U.S. v. Ramic:

Over a decade ago, a new wave of terrorism spread across the Middle East. A group calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) sought to establish a new regime strictly governed by Islamic law. To do so, ISIS employed brutal tactics—planting bombs, publicly decapitating its enemies, burning people alive, and enslaving women and children. It also launched vicious attacks to conquer territory in Iraq and Syria. And it recruited fighters from around the world to perform these acts of terrorism.

Mirsad Ramic was one such fighter. He traveled from the United States to Syria, where he participated in an attack that claimed over 100,000 lives….

Mirsad Ramic grew up in Bosnia during a civil war. That conflict involved genocide and war crimes targeted at minority groups, including Bosnian Muslims like Ramic and his family. In fact, Ramic's father was killed during this conflict. So once the war concluded, the United States offered Ramic and his family a fresh start by granting them refugee status. Ramic's family ultimately settled in Bowling Green, Kentucky, a city with a vibrant population of other Bosnian refugees. Eventually, Ramic became a naturalized U.S. citizen, but he was unhappy with his American life.

Rather than embracing the privilege of American citizenship, Ramic embraced the extremist views of terrorist groups trying to destroy the United States and its allies. During his naturalization ceremony, Ramic refused to recite the oath of allegiance to the United States. Instead, he proclaimed an Islamic oath and cursed all nonbelievers….

Abdullah el-Faisal … was a Jamaican Muslim cleric who had previously been convicted in the United Kingdom of advocating for the murder of Jews, Hindus, Christians, and Americans. When ISIS started gaining traction, Faisal began recruiting for the group and urged his supporters to launch violent jihadist attacks. He instructed his followers on how to covertly travel to Syria or Iraq to join ISIS. Ramic consumed this radical propaganda and soon ascended to Faisal's inner circle, becoming one of the few people trusted to directly raise money on Faisal's behalf.

Ramic then put Faisal's instructions into action and traveled to Syria to join ISIS. Upon arriving in Syria, Ramic completed an ISIS intake form, indicating that he wished to become a fighter. To prepare for battle, Ramic went through military-style training where he learned warfare tactics and how to use combat weapons. His classmates recalled that he expressed a particular interest in automatic weapons and sniper rifles.

After completing his training, Ramic fought in the siege of Kobane, a city in northern Syria. He was on the front lines of the initial assault on the city. During this battle, ISIS primarily fought against a local militia group. But the United States also supported that local militia, launching air strikes against ISIS forces. Though the attack was ultimately unsuccessful, ISIS wreaked enormous havoc on the city and its populace, displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians and committing numerous atrocities. Roughly 100,000 people died during the campaign.

Following the siege of Kobane, Ramic continued to support ISIS's mission. He posted on social media, praising ISIS's public beheading of Coptic Christians in........

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