|
United States v. Pho: Reasons and Reasonableness in Post-Booker Appellate Review |
|
|
|
|
Eric Citron [View as PDF]
|
115 Yale L.J. 2183 (2006)
This Comment argues that a proper understanding of Booker's reasonableness review validates the appellate court's rejection of these reduced-ratio sentences in Pho, and should do so despite the fact that the sentences issued by Judge Torres were eminently "reasonable" in any colloquial sense of the term. Two possible conceptions of reasonableness review must be distinguished--"reasonable-length" review and "reasons-based" review--and the latter should be preferred. Reasons-based review focuses not on the terms imposed but on the reasons given for imposing them, insisting that those reasons comport with Congress's sentencing priorities. This paradigm, more so than the vague reasonableness standard, acknowledges congressional authority over sentencing rationales and preserves a central role for Congress's much-beloved Sentencing Guidelines going forward. At the same time, by seeing the Guidelines as providing reasons rather than outcome-oriented formulae, it avoids the rote view of the Guidelines that rendered them unconstitutional under Booker. It is thus not only the most appropriate view on the law, but also capable of reconciling Congress's obvious desire for rule-bound sentencing with the advisory role of the Guidelines as they now stand.
|
