The Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act of 1994

United States v. Booker
Though the Federal Sentencing Guidelines were styled as mandatory, the Supreme
Court's 2005 decision in United States v. Booker found that the Guidelines, as originally
constituted, violated the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury, and the remedy chosen
was excision of those provisions of the law establishing the Guidelines as mandatory. In
the aftermath of Booker and other Supreme Court cases, such as Blakely v.
Washington (2004), Guidelines are now considered advisory only. Federal judges (state
judges are not affected by the Guidelines) must calculate the guidelines and consider
them when determining a sentence but are not required to issue sentences within the
guidelines. Those sentences are still, however, subject to appellate review. The
frequency in which sentences are imposed that exceed the range stated in the
Guidelines has doubled in the years since the Booker decision.
Guidelines Basics
The Guidelines determine sentences based primarily on two factors:
1. the conduct associated with the offense (the offense conduct, which produces
the offense level)
2. the defendant's criminal history (the criminal history category)
The Sentencing Table in the Guidelines Manual shows the relationship between these
two factors; for each pairing of offense level and criminal history category, the Table
specifies a sentencing range, in months, within which the court may sentence a
defendant. For example, for a defendant convicted on an offense with a total offense
level of 22 and a criminal history category of I, the Guidelines recommend a sentence of
41–51 months. If, however, a person with an extensive criminal history (Category VI)
committed the same offense in the same manner in the same modern timeline and not
during the older guideline periods, the Guidelines would recommend a sentence of 84–
105 months.
Offense Level
There are 43 offense levels. The offense level of a defendant is determined by looking
up the offense in Chapter 2 and applying any applicable adjustments. The originally
proposed sentencing guidelines had 360 levels, and there are proposals to substantially
reduce the current number of offense levels.
Criminal History
There are six criminal history categories. Each category is associated with a range of
criminal history points. Thus, for example, a defendant with 0 or 1 criminal history points
would be in Criminal History Category I, while a defendant with 13 or more criminal
history points would be in Criminal History Category VI. The criminal history points are
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