Court Opinion

ID: 9493545
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:11:22.673552+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:53.991837
License: Public Domain

EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge,
dissenting from the denial of rehearing.
I am gratified to learn that the Sentencing Commission is content with the powers Congress gave it and does not seek to evade statutory limits on its rule-creation and rule-interpretation abilities. See 206 F.3d at 744-45 (dissenting from the panel’s original handling of this subject). Withdrawing the invitation is a sound step. Unfortunately, however, the court follows the Commission only part way. The Commission’s letter to the Solicitor General also has this to say:
It is the Commission’s view that action by the Commission should be sustained when it has acted within its statutory authority. The Commission’s ability to carry out its responsibilities under the Sentencing Reform Act would be hampered if clearly worded guideline provisions were not to be given effect pending some further statement of intent from the Commission.... [The court’s] approach could also undermine uniform application of the guidelines by encouraging individual judges to construe guideline provisions narrowly and to focus on legislative history rather than on the guidelines themselves. In sum, this precedent, if undisturbed, would be detrimental to the operation of the Commission and to the uniform application of the guidelines.
*1036Indeed so. By departing from what the Commission promulgated because they are unsure what the Commissioners thought, my colleagues promote uncertainty and do a serious disservice to the statutory goal of predictability in sentencing. We should fix this part of the decision, too, and remand with instructions to sentence Tomasino under the text of the existing guidelines.