In its 2005 opinion United States v. Booker , the U.S. Supreme Court declared that the once-binding federal sentencing guidelines (the Guidelines) set by the United States Sentencing Commission are now only advisory, in order to be compatible with the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution. Until 2007, the Guidelines reflected a statutory scheme that made crack cocaine defendants subject to the same sentence as those defendants trafficking in 100 times more powder cocaine; thus, the sentences for crack cocaine offenses were three to over six times longer than those for offenses involving equivalent amounts of powder cocaine. In the immediate aftermath of Booker , federal courts disagreed about whether the 100:1 ratio produces disparities that justify a sentence lower than that recommended by the Guidelines. The Supreme Court resolved that issue in its 2007 opinion Kimbrough v. United States , by holding that a federal court may impose a sentence below that called for under the Guidelines' then-existing 100:1 ratio, based on its conclusion that the ratio is greater than necessary or may foster unwarranted disparity. The pre- Booker era for federal sentencing began with the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, which established a sentencing system under the United States Sentencing Commission's federal sentencing guidelines. The previous system tailored sentences to the individual defendants. Judges were given broad ranges within which they could, at their discretion, sentence a defendant. The sentence was supposed to be based on the defendant's character as much as his conduct. Thereafter, the discretion given to the judge was passed on to the Parole Commission to determine how much of the judge's sentence the defendant ultimately served. Under the Guidelines, the judge's role at sentencing was more uniform and unvaried. The judge could inquire into a number of factors, including the defendant's conduct and criminal history. The judge then weighed each factor according to the Sentencing Commission's mandate and calculated an offense level for the defendant. The judge had discretion to sentence the defendant but, with little ground for departure, only within the narrow sentencing range that the Guidelines provided for each offense level. The Sentencing Reform Act also abolished the Parole Commission's role. Crack cocaine became prevalent in the mid-1980s and received widespread media attention following the death of the University of Maryland all-American basketball player, Len Bias, from the use of cocaine. Crack cocaine was portrayed as a violence-inducing, highly addictive plague of inner cities, and this notoriety led to the quick passage of a federal sentencing law concerning crack cocaine in 1986. This legislation created two mandatory sentencing ranges for drug offenses. The lower bracket spanned periods of imprisonment ranging from a mandatory minimum of 5 years to a maximum of 40 years; the higher bracket spanned periods ranging from a mandatory minimum of 10 years to a maximum of life. Congress prescribed the threshold quantities of both crack and powdered cocaine required to bring a particular offense within either bracket. Despite the chemical identity of crack and powder cocaine, Congress set widely disparate threshold quantities for the two drugs, requiring 100 times more powder cocaine than crack cocaine to trigger inclusion in a particular range. The rationale offered was that many considered crack much more addictive than powder cocaine, and they feared a wave of violent crimes spawned by drug users as well as the health threats to infants born to addicted mothers. The Sentencing Commission also incorporated this ratio into the drug guidelines, although it later concluded that the 100:1 powder to crack ratio produces sentences that are greater than necessary to satisfy the purposes of punishment because it exaggerates the relative harmfulness of crack cocaine; the majority of crack offenders have low drug quantities, short criminal histories, and no history of violence. The Sentencing Commission also concluded that a ratio providing for sentences that are greater than necessary creates an unwarranted disparity, inappropriate uniformity, racial disparity, and disrespect for the law. Over the years, Congress has had second thoughts about the disparity in drug sentences. To achieve a more equitable balance, as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, Congress enacted a safety valve provision, which provided an avenue for lowering mandatory minimum sentences in a limited category of drug cases. During the same year, Congress directed the Sentencing Commission to study the crack-to-powder ratio and submit recommendations relative to whether the ratio should be retained or modified. The Sentencing Commission recommended revision of the 100:1 quantity ratio in 1995, finding the ratio to be unjustified by the small differences in the two forms of cocaine. Congress rejected the recommendation of the Sentencing Commission and did not change the law. Two years later, the Sentencing Commission issued a follow-up report. In this report, the commission reiterated its position that the 100:1 ratio was excessive. It recommended that the 100:1 ratio be reduced to 5:1 by increasing the threshold quantities for offenses involving crack cocaine and decreasing the threshold quantities for offenses involving powder cocaine. Again, Congress took no action and did not amend the law. In 2001, the Senate Judiciary Committee asked the Sentencing Commission to revisit its position regarding the 100:1 ratio, and in the subsequent year, the Sentencing Commission issued its third report. In this report, the commission again proposed narrowing the gap that separated crack cocaine offenses from powder cocaine because (1) the severe penalties for crack cocaine offenses seemed to fall mainly on low-level criminals and African Americans, (2) the dangers posed by crack could be satisfactorily addressed through sentencing enhancements that would apply neutrally to all drug offenses, and (3) recent data suggested that the penalties were disproportionate to the harms associated with the two drugs. Unlike the previous report, the Commission did not recommend a reduction in the powder cocaine threshold. The Commission did recommend elimination of the 5-year mandatory minimum for simple possession of crack cocaine. Congress considered the substance of the Commission's 2002 report but took no action. Judges have long been critical of the automatic prison terms, commonly referred to as mandatory minimum sentences, which were enacted pursuant to the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 in part to stem the drug trade. Prior to the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Booker , the case law was generally cognizant of the seriousness in the sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine but regularly deferred to Congress's policy judgments. This undertaking led to a series of decisions that upheld the 100:1 ratio against a variety of challenges, which included the Equal Protection Clause and the rule of lenity. It was also decided that under the mandatory guidelines system that was popular before Booker , neither the Sentencing Commission's criticism of the 100:1 ratio nor its unacknowledged 1995 proposal to eliminate the differential provided a valid basis for leniency in the sentencing of crack cocaine offenders. In Booker , the Supreme Court consolidated two lower court cases and considered them in tandem, United States v. Fanfan and United States v. Booker . Booker was arrested after officers found in his duffle bag 92.5 grams of crack cocaine. He later gave a written statement to the police in which he admitted selling an additional 566 grams of crack cocaine. A jury in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin found Booker guilty of two counts of possessing at least 50 grams of cocaine base with the intent to distribute it, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A)(iii). At sentencing, the judge found by a preponderance of the evidence that Booker had distributed 566 grams in addition to the 92.5 grams that the jury found; the judge also found that Booker had obstructed justice. In the absence of the judge's additional findings, Booker would have only faced a maximum sentence of 262 months under the United States Sentencing Guidelines. The judge, however sentenced Booker to 360 months, based on the Guidelines' treatment of the additional cocaine and the obstruction of justice. The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the conviction but overturned the sentence. Narcotic agents arrested Fanfan when they discovered 1.25 kilograms of cocaine and 281.6 grams of cocaine base in his vehicle. A jury in the District of Maine found that he possessed "500 or more grams" of cocaine with the intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846. At sentencing, the court determined that Fanfan was the "ring leader of a significant drug conspiracy," which, combined with his criminal history, resulted in a sentence of 188 to 235 months under the Guidelines. However, four days before the June 28, 2004, sentencing hearing, the Supreme Court decided Blakely v. Washington , holding that as part of a state sentencing guideline system, a Washington state judge could not find an aggravating fact authorizing a higher sentence than the state statutes otherwise permitted. The sentencing judge in Fanfan considered the effect that Blakely may have on the federal sentencing Guidelines and recalculated the Guidelines based only on the possession of 500 grams and imposed the 78 month maximum for that range. The Supreme Court granted certiorari in Booker and Fanfan in an effort to give some guidance to lower courts that had begun a variety of applications of the Blakely decision to federal prisoners. For example, in Booker , the Seventh Circuit found that the federal sentencing guidelines violate the Sixth Amendment in some situations. The Fifth Circuit, on the other hand, concluded that Blakely did not apply to the Guidelines because to do so would create a separate "offense" for each possible sentence for a particular crime. The Second Circuit, without resolving the issue, certified questions to the Supreme Court regarding the application of Blakely to federal sentences pursuant to the Guidelines. The Supreme Court issued a majority opinion in two parts. The first part, written by Justice Stevens for a 5-4 majority (Justices Scalia, Souter, Thomas, and Ginsburg) decided that the Guidelines violate the Sixth Amendment and are thus unconstitutional because they require a judge to increase a sentence above the maximum guideline range if the judge finds facts to justify an increase. They said a defendant's right to trial by jury is violated if a judge must impose a higher sentence than the sentence that the judge could have imposed based on the facts found by the jury.