United States of America
Petitioner
Paul D. Clement, Acting Solicitor GeneralThe Federal Sentencing Guidelines are set forth by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which was created by the U.S. Congress in the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984. They provide a structure for judges to use when assigning prison time for Federal crimes. The constitutionality of these guidelines, which allow judges to rely in part on facts that have not been proven to a jury, was called into question earlier this year in the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Blakely v. Washington. Because of widespread confusion in the lower courts, the Supreme Court on August 2, 2004,…
