Reconsidering the Constitutionality of Federal Sentencing Guidelines After Blakely: A Former Commissioner's Perspective

Our cases have made abundantly dear that a defendant does not enjoy a constitutional right to a jury determination as to the appropriate sentence to be imposed.

-United States Supreme Court**

On June 24, 2004, the United States Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision that called into question the constitutionality of the federal sentencing guidelines. Blakely v. Washington ruled that a trial court's upward departure from the penalty range ordinarily prescribed by state law deprived defendant Ralph Howard Blakely Jr. of his Sixth Amendment right to have a jury determine all facts essential to his sentence beyond a reasonable doubt.1 Observing that "[petitioner was sentenced to …