"Scrutinizing Sentencing"

The title of this post is the title of this notable new essay authored by Christopher Slobogin which was just posted to SSRN (and seems quite well timed right before we are to celebrate Constitution Day). Here is its abstract:

Physical liberty is the most fundamental of all constitutional rights.  Yet the Supreme Court has continued to employ rational basis review of criminal sentencing rather than ensure that prison sentences are narrowly tailored to meet a compelling state interest.  Properly scrutinized, mandatory sentencing regimes, extremely long sentences, and boilerplate parole and probation conditions would be unconstitutional.