Opinion ID: 74329
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Validity of the Sentencing Scheme

Text: In United States v. Osburn, this Court upheld the former sentencing structure, under § 841(b)(1)(B)(vii) and § 2D1.1 of the Guidelines, in the face of a constitutional challenge. 955 F.2d 1500 (11th Cir. 1992). We explained that Congress could rationally have decided that large-scale drug traffickers present a greater danger to society and deserve harsher punishment. See id. at 1508. Appellant now asks us to conclude that Congress acted irrationally, and thus in violation of the Constitution, by standardizing the plant to weight conversion ratio 4 in the Sentencing Guidelines without a concomitant change in the governing statute.1 The only Court of Appeals that has considered this issue rejected Appellant’s argument. See United States v. Marshall, 95 F.3d 700, 701 (8th Cir. 1996). We agree with the Eighth Circuit that Amendment 516 did not render the sentencing regime unconstitutional. We need not determine Congress’s justification for approving the Amendment; we need only examine the decision to evaluate whether it rests on a rational basis. Congress could have approved of a more uniform approach to plant and weight equivalency while it decided to maintain a severe penalty for large-scale traffickers. We approved of such a consideration in Osburn. Congress might have acted incrementally and ratified the Guideline change as a precursor to Congress’s reconsideration of the statutory mandatory minimum. Such an act by Congress would survive a rational basis review. See Williamson v. Lee Optical Co., 348 U.S. 483, 489, 75 S. Ct. 461, 465 1 Of course, the passage of Amendment 516 did not alter the mandatory minimum sentence contained in the statute. See United States v. Eggersdorf, 126 F.3d 1318, 1320-21 (11th Cir. 1997). See also U.S.S.G. § 5G1.1(b) (explaining that when the mandatory minimum exceeds the applicable guideline range, the mandatory minimum becomes the guideline sentence). 5 (1955). Under either approach, Congress did not act irrationally by approving Amendment 516.2 This conclusion comports with other decisions that have considered arguable discrepancies between mandatory minimums and the Sentencing Guidelines. See, e.g., Neal v. United States, 516 U.S. 284, 296, 116 S. Ct. 763, 769 (1996) (upholding mandatory minimum with respect to LSD sentence despite its potential conflict with a provision of the Guidelines). It also reflects the general view that Congress enjoys wide latitude in deciding the severity of punishment for drug offenses. See, e.g., United States v. Solomon, 848 F.2d 156, 157-58 (11th Cir. 1998) (upholding punishment based on drug weight regardless of purity). Finally, we reject Appellant’s argument that the sentencing regime treats similar offenders differently in violation of the Equal Protection Clause. Appellant points out that two offenders with his criminal history and role in the offense caught with 999 and 1000 plants respectively would face guideline ranges of 86 to 108 months and 108 to 135 months but mandatory minimum sentences of 120 months and 240 months. While Appellant correctly describes the applicable 2 We also observe, but do not decide, a hidden peril in Appellant’s argument: as the First Circuit noted in a discussion of Amendment 488, “[w]ere a court to conclude that the [Guideline and statutory approaches] cannot coexist constitutionally, it seems virtually certain that Amendment 488, rather than [the statute] would be struck down, and with it the Guidelines sentence reduction.” United States v. Dimeo, 28 F.3d 240, 241 n.4 (1st Cir. 1994). 6 sentences, he fails to recognize that Congress must draw lines between classes of offenders and that those lines might appear arbitrary at the edges. We have already approved of this sentencing regime, which sharply distinguishes between the possession of certain numbers of plants, see Osburn, 955 F.2d at 1507, and we do so again here.