Posted on 10/04/2004 5:45:13 AM PDT by OESY
...On the docket are cases involving the constitutionality of capital punishment for teens, the detention of illegal immigrants in the age of terrorism, and age discrimination in the workplace. The Justices will hear an important eminent domain case -- whether a city can force citizens to sell their homes or businesses in favor of economic development -- and they'll decide whether oenophiles can import across state lines....
But the most significant cases may be the two the Court will hear this afternoon on the right to trial by jury. At stake are the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines mandated by Congress in the mid-1980s, when criminals seemed to be everywhere except in jail paying their debts to society. The complicated system is not without fault, but it has worked reasonably well and deserves part of the credit for the lower crime rate the country is currently enjoying.
All of which is to say that we'd hate to see the Justices tinker with success.... the Court struck down a similar system in the state of Washington, saying that it violated defendants' Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury....
Whatever the ruling, some adjustment to the Sentencing Guidelines seems inevitable. Even before Blakely, Congress was showing an inclination to get more involved -- especially in setting mandatory minimums for a wider range of crimes. This trend doesn't go down well with most judges, including Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who bawled out Congress in his annual report last January.
But then judges have brought much of this on themselves by too often issuing lenient sentences that clearly offend public sentiment. The opposition in liberal legal circles to Attorney General John Ashcroft's order to the Justice Department to keep track of judges whose sentences depart downward from the guidelines is an illustration of this judicial mindset....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The Judiciary has been tinkering with "success" ever since Justice Marshall decided that the Constitution was what the High Court said it was.
Watch for the court's Europhiles to further erode our Constitutional freedoms, and lower us deeper into the Socialist pit.
The 1987 Federal Sentencing Guidelines need to be reviewed and repaired.
They are often draconian....with no recourse for mitigation aside from snitching.
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