Details concerning the brewing Booker fix
I am back home from the North Star state at a fully functioning computer and can thus now provide a lot more details about the Booker fix which is brewing in the US House of Representatives. Here are some basics:
1. The Booker fix appears as section 12 of H.R. 1528, a drug sentencing bill entitled “Defending America’s Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2005.” A table of contents for the bill, with links to the bill’s text, is available at this link.
2. The substance of the Booker fix in section 12 of H.R. 1528 is anything but subtle. The bill essentially forbids consideration of three dozen potentially mitigating factors as a basis for sentencing below the applicable guideline range, and it imposes significant procedural restrictions on any possible remaining grounds for downward departure (except based on a prosecutor’s motion for substantial assistance or for fast-track treatment).
3. The House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security will conduct a legislative hearing on H.R. 1528 tomorrow at 1pm, and the four scheduled witnesses are listed at this official website. The descriptions of the witnesses suggest they were called to testify on the drug sentencing provisions of the bill; it does not appear that anyone has been called to testify concerning the Booker fix provisions.
4. Even before the addition of the Booker fix, FAMM has been tracking this drug sentencing bill and another bill with mandatory sentencing provisions entitled “The Gang Deterrence and Community Protection Act of 2005” (as detailed here). I provide for downloading below a section-by-section analysis of H.R. 1528, the drug sentencing bill which includes the Booker fix.