When Booker meets Blakely in the federal system

Federal Public Defenders Jon Sands and Robert McWhirter have produced a fascinating article which explores the intersection of Blakely and Booker for these cases in the federal sentencing system in which state and federal sentencing law intertwine.  This article, which will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Federal Sentencing Reporter and is entitled "Federal Sentencing Adventures in Jurisdictional Wonderland: Blakely, Booker, and Special Federal Jurisdiction Issues," is available for downloading below.  Here is the magical start to the article:

"Curiouser and curiouser!" exclaimed Alice as she fell through the Booker rabbit hole of federal sentencing.  Words do not mean what they seem, mandatory guidelines disappear like Cheshire cats, and appellate Mad Tea Parties discern "reasonableness" and even "advisory."

Over all the Queen of Hearts proclaims:

One Blakely Constitution for the States

And a Booker one for the Feds,

If they don't understand it,

Off with their heads!

But Alice sees something curiouser still — a jurisdictional hole, where the federal courts, Alice-like, peer through the looking-glass of Booker to fall back into Blakelyland.  Enter the Assimilative Crimes Act (ACA) and the Major Crimes Act.

Download federal_sentencing_adventures_in_wonderland.rtf