Opinion ID: 577187
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Review of Guidelines

Text: 25 Courts are less deferential to the Federal Sentencing Commission when reviewing attacks on the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. Generally, [w]e review the rules with deference, and we may not substitute our judgment on policy matters for that of the Commission. But a Guideline that is arbitrary and capricious cannot be given effect in court. United States v. Streeter, 907 F.2d 781, 790 (8th Cir.1990). 26 In Streeter the Eighth Circuit invalidated part of section 2D1.1 of the Guidelines because it failed to follow the mandate of the underlying statute. Id. As discussed above, the Guidelines imposed a per se 100 gram per plant equivalency in place of the actual weight requirement despite section 841(b)(1)(D)'s mandate that sentences for offenses involving fewer than 50 plants be based on the actual weight of marijuana obtained from those plants. The Streeter court indicated that a 100 gram equivalency might have been permissible if the government had claimed that 100 grams represented the average yield of marijuana plants. Id. at 790. However, the government had failed to present this argument, and the court consequently found the Guideline arbitrary and capricious. Id. 27 Since Streeter was decided, the commentary accompanying the guidelines has been amended. Now the commentary states that [t]he decision to treat each plant as equal to 100 grams is premised on the fact that the average yield from a mature marihuana plant equals 100 grams of marihuana. U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1, p. 89 (Nov. 1991). Given this justification and the dictum contained in Streeter, the Guidelines would likely survive a direct challenge concerning the validity of applying a 100 gram per plant equivalency to offenses involving fewer than 50 plants. 28 The case at hand, however, involves more than 50 plants, and we therefore need not settle the issue of the propriety of the 100 gram per plant Guideline. For the purposes of this case, the Guidelines are consistent with congressional intent as expressed in 21 U.S.C. § 841(b) and can only be deemed arbitrary and capricious if the statute upon which they are based is arbitrary. We therefore agree with the Ninth Circuit and the district court that section 2D1.1 of the Guidelines is consistent with the Congressional mandate contained in section 841(b)(1)(D) concerning the treatment of individuals convicted of offenses involving 50 or more marijuana plants. United States v. Motz, 936 F.2d 1021 (9th Cir.1991) (case similarly challenging the constitutionality of Congress's equivalency scheme on the same grounds as the defendants in this case); United States v. Osburn, 756 F.Supp. 571, 574 (N.D.Ga.1991). The Guidelines appropriately implement Congress's intent that sentences for individuals convicted of possessing 50 or more plants be based on a 1000 gram per plant equivalency scheme.