Eleventh Circuit declares Booker inapplicable to restitution

Getting in line with other circuits that have considered the issue, the Eleventh Circuit today in US v. Williams, No. 04-15117 (11th Cir. Apr. 13, 2006) (available here), declares that “Booker does not apply to restitution orders.”  Here’s the court’s reasoning:

We do so because restitution orders are authorized by the MVRA, a statute unaffected by Booker. Additionally, the MVRA does not set an upper limit on the amount of restitution.  Therefore, a restitution order cannot be said to exceed the maximum provided by the penalty statutes, and it cannot violate the rule announced in Booker…. 

The Williams court drops a footnote to make this point: “In holding that Booker does not apply to restitution orders, we join the Third, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Circuits.”

A few related posts:

• Third Circuit rules, en banc, Blakely and Booker inapplicable to restitution and forfeiture
• Eighth Circuit joins chorus saying Blakely does not apply to restitution
• Reviewing the status of restitution

UPDATE: Thanks to law.com, you can access here an article in the Daily Business Review by Carl Jones about this Williams case.