Anyone for a Constitutional Amendment which states:
"Congress shall have the authority to establish minimum and maximum penalties for all federal crimes."
No.
I agree.
Congress has always had the power to set minimum and maximum penalties. The existence of these ranges is the source of the sentencing disparities the dissenting justices cite. But to establish an elaborate set of formulas to determine sentencing is to deprive judges of the ability to take into account mitigating circumstances and other factors which are generally lumped into the general category of "justice." Furthermore, a lot of the problems encountered in Federal sentencing could be eliminated if the Federal government didn't try to duplicate State laws.
Why should we trust Congress? There is very little they get right. I feel more assured with the sentencing decisions being in the hands of the juries and the judges.
No one doubts that Congress has that power and that it is constitutional for them to use it. What this case dealt with is the fact that, under the guidelines, courts were required to base their sentences on a long list of facts that were not found by the jury. For example, in a drug case, the guidelines say that the sentence depends on the quantity of drugs the defendant "possessed or intended to possess," but the jury only decides if the defendant is guilty of possession; the judge then decides the amount. This was held (correctly, IMHO) to be a violation of the right to trial by jury.