Seeking guest postings for “Reflections on Booker at 15″

On this day 15 years ago, January 12, 2005, the Supreme Court (not-so-) radically transformed the federal sentencing system through its ruling in Booker v. United States.  I noted in this post exactly five years ago that Booker received very fanfare when it turned 10 in January 2015, so I suppose I am not surprised that it seems I may be one of the few to now highlight (or even realize) that today marks another big milestone in the history of the federal sentencing system.

I am inclined to call year 15 the biggest birthday for Booker because, prior to the ruling, the federal sentencing guidelines operated  as a “mandatory” or “presumptive” sentencing system for roughly 15 years from 1989 to 2004.  Then along came Blakely v. Washington and Booker finding this mandatory system constitutionally flawed and “fixing” the problem by making the guidelines “effectively advisory.”  Notably, the US Sentencing Commission in November 2004, right between the Blakely and Booker rulings, released this 250-page report titled “Fifteen Years of Guidelines Sentencing: An Assessment of How Well the Federal Criminal Justice System is Achieving the Goals of Sentencing Reform.”  I am not aware of any big forthcoming report from the USSC with any assessment of fifteen years of advisory guideline sentencing, though I think it could be very valuable for the USSC and others to reflect at length (and with lots of data) on what fifteen years of advisory guidelines have wrought.

So, in an effort to fill this 15 year Booker birthday void, I am eager to here solicit guest postings from anyone and everyone eager to reflect on the Booker world that has now proven to be so enduring.  In other words, if you follow or participating in the federal sentencing system, send me thoughts via email that I can repost in this space.

In some coming posts, I may do some of my own commentary under the headlined “Reflections on Booker at 15,” but I am especially eager to hear other perspectives on the state of the federal sentencing world 15 years after Booker.  I will start the commentary here (and finish this post) with the notable paragraph from Justice Breyer after his embrace of an advisory guideline remedy:

Ours, of course, is not the last word: The ball now lies in Congress’ court. The National Legislature is equipped to devise and install, long-term, the sentencing system, compatible with the Constitution, that Congress judges best for the federal system of justice.

Based on the passage of 15 years without even the introduction of a major bill that makes any serious effort to change the advisory guideline sentencing system, it seems that Congress has ultimately judged the Booker-created sentencing system to be best for the federal system of justice (or at least good enough for government work).