Early reactions to topless guidelines bill

As detailed here, House Judiciary Chair James Sensenbrenner has finally introduced his “topless guidelines” legislative Booker fix, a proposal about which I have already written a lot (in this article and in so many posts).  I am thus pleased to see other bloggers weighing in with astute observations about the misguided aspects of this Booker fix proposal.

Ellen Podgor at White Collar Crime Prof Blog here notes that sentences are going up in a key area after Booker and she asks this insightful question: “Is there really any need for topless guidelines if the sentences are going up in the one area, white collar crime, that seems to be of enormous concern?”

Anthony J. Colleluori, aka That Lawyer Dude, here provides a fuller critique in a post entitled “Congressman Sensenbrenner Goes Topless In The House Of Representatives: Lies Our Congressmen Tell Us.”  Here is one of many sharp passages in his post:

Lie No. 3: Senselessbrenner states in [his press] release that “Two of the hallmarks of our judicial system, fairness and equity, have been undermined since the Supreme Court’s Booker decision last year.”… [But] the bipartisan committee of the Constitution Project (Chaired by Reagan Attorney General Edwin Messe and Clinton’s Deputy AG Phillip Heymann) said that “topless guidelines are unconstitutional.” Other commentators have noted that the guidelines now allow the sentencing courts to get the sentence right and allow the Circuits to keep everyone in line…. If Sensenbrenner really wants to protect children from exploitation, let him start on Capital Hill.