Pubdate: Mon, 05 Jan 2004
Source: Birmingham Post-Herald (AL)
Copyright: 2004 Birmingham Post Co.
Contact:  http://www.postherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/46

THE CHIEF JUSTICE SPEAKS

In unusually strong language, Chief Justice William Rehnquist has asked 
Congress to repeal a law it passed last year that restricts judges' 
sentencing discretion.

And he was particularly critical of efforts by Attorney General John 
Ashcroft and House Republicans to identify and monitor judges who depart 
from federal sentencing guidelines, a ham-handed way of trying to browbeat 
judges into imposing stricter sentences.

In his year-end report on the judiciary, Rehnquist said the monitoring 
"could appear to be an unwarranted and ill-considered effort to intimidate 
individual judges in the performance of their duties." He need not have 
used the conditional.

The sentencing restrictions were added to an anti-crime bill last April 
with little discussion or debate and, said Rehnquist, "without any 
consideration of the views of the judiciary."

Because of the pay, the workload and the onerous confirmation process, 
attracting qualified jurists to the federal bench may soon be a real 
problem, made worse by Congress' weakening their authority and conservative 
ideologues' peering over their shoulders.

The law, by attempting to enforce rigid adherence to sentencing guidelines, 
effectively puts more sentencing power in the hands of prosecutors and it 
also strains the quality of official mercy.

Rehnquist is himself a conservative; certainly he's no one's idea of a 
bleeding-heart liberal. And he's backed in his opposition to this law by 
the Judicial Conference, the organization representing the federal judiciary.

At no time did Congress or the Justice Department, which supports the new 
law, ever prove a need for this legislation.

The returning Congress should heed the chief justice's words and the 
judiciary's wishes and repeal the curbs on sentencing.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman