Judicial freedom goes the way of citizen's freedom
This will have several chilling effects. Drug law is stupid because drug abuse is a health problem more than a legal one. Many states are finding the current budget crisis, also brought on by stupid federal policy, is making them look at drug treatment more favorably…it's much cheaper to treat an user than to imprison one. This policy will likely scare most judges into jailing them, thereby keeping those unnecessary expenditures in state budgets.
Justice Dept. to Monitor Judges for Sentences Shorter Than Guidelines SuggestBy ERIC LICHTBLAU
WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 — The Justice Department told a federal court administrator today that it would begin compiling data on judges who give lighter sentences than federal guidelines prescribe, a move that critics see as an effort to limit judicial independence by creating a "blacklist" of judges.
The new policy will require prosecutors to notify Justice Department officials in Washington whenever a federal judge issues a sentence that falls below sentencing guidelines. The notification will set in motion a review of whether an appeal of the judge's sentence should be filed.
"The public in general and crime victims in particular rightly expect that the penalties established by law for specific crimes will be sought and imposed by those who serve in the criminal justice system," Attorney General John Ashcroft wrote in a July 28 memorandum to federal prosecutors outlining the protocol.
The policy, first reported on Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal, is part of a bill signed into law by President Bush in April that seeks to make it tougher for federal judges to depart from sentencing guidelines.
The Justice Department, in a letter today to the head of the administrative office of the United States Courts, said it developed the policy as part of the new law's requirements rather than accept a more "onerous" option allowed by Congress. That option would have required the Justice Department to go to Congress with a detailed report each time a judge broke from the sentencing guidelines.
This whole Ashcroft thing gives me the creeps more and more each day. Someone, I forget who, recently said that we need to keep some perspective about him, because on his worst day he's not the Hitler people are claiming.
Well,
Hitler wasn't Hitler his first year or so in office.
Every Bush appointee, including Bush himself (yes, he's a Bush appointee too), claimed centrist intent and demonstrated more and more extremist behavior as time passed. I have no reason to expect Ashcroft to check his own movement in the same direction.
posted by Prometheus 6 at 8/8/2003 06:38:47 AM |
Posted by P6 at August 8, 2003 06:38 AM
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