New Fight Over Controlling Punishments Is Widely Seen

[Rose Siding]

reactions to SCOTUS manditory sentencing decision

snip>
"As the court recognized, the ball is now in Congress's court," said Senator Orrin G. Hatch, the Utah Republican who characterized himself as disappointed by the decision but not surprised. "We will need to examine our options carefully."
...
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee led the successful effort last year to require the United States Sentencing Commission to provide Congress with the names of federal judges who broke from the guidelines. Representative Tom Feeney, the Florida Republican who wrote that provision, called the court ruling an "egregious overreach."
...
Democrats urged caution.
"Congress should resist the urge to rush in with quick fixes that would only generate more uncertainty and litigation and do nothing to protect public safety," Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, said, "The last thing our criminal justice system needs is rash action by Congress to impose a comprehensive mandatory sentencing regime on federal judges."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/13/politics/13react.html?oref=login

[Megahurtz]

1. The United States of Arrestia.......

[pinto]

2. This is a good Constitutional battle...there's been a gradual erosion

in the federal judiciary's independence, in the form of guideline requirements as set by the federal legislative branch, public expectations fueled by the legislature's inappropriate "activism" and outright threats to the judiciary from the legislature. I'm glad more Congressmen are weighing in.

[bemildred]

3. It's these pricks in Congress that need to spend some time in jail. nt