Court Opinion

ID: 9497168
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:45:05.900821+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:02.591414
License: Public Domain

EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
My colleagues hold that, after Blakely v. Washington, — U.S. —, 124 S.Ct. 2531, 159 L.Ed.2d 403 (2004), judicial application of the Sentencing Guidelines violates the defendant’s right to trial by jury under the sixth amendment. I disagree with that holding on both procedural and substantive grounds. This is the wrong forum for such a conclusion; and whatever power we may possess should not be exercised to set at naught a central component of federal criminal practice.
*516Procedure first. The Supreme Court alone is entitled to declare one of its decisions defunct. Even if later decisions wash away the earlier one’s foundation, still the power to administer the coup de gráee belongs to our superiors. See, e.g., State Oil Co. v. Khan, 522 U.S. 3, 20, 118 S.Ct. 275, 139 L.Ed.2d 199 (1997); Rodriguez de Quijas v. Shearson/American Express, Inc., 490 U.S. 477, 484, 109 S.Ct. 1917, 104 L.Ed.2d 526 (1989). The alternative is bedlam — which is the likely consequence of today’s decision. A court of appeals cannot replace the Guidelines with something else; the list of non-exclusive options at the end of the majority’s opinion is our home-brewed formula, and other courts are bound to favor different recipes as 900 district and circuit judges fumble for solutions. The Supreme Court alone can make a definitive judgment.
In order to reach the result they do, my colleagues must conclude that Edwards v. United States, 523 U.S. 511, 118 S.Ct. 1475, 140 L.Ed.2d 703 (1998), was wrongly decided. Our portfolio as intermediate judges in a hierarchical system does not include the authority to make such declarations. True enough, Edwards does not contain the phrase “sixth amendment.” But an argument based on the sixth amendment was made to the Court: defendants insisted that, if the Guidelines and statutes were read as the United States and the Justices themselves did, that would deprive them of their right to a jury trial. The Court’s opinion in Edwards acknowledged that constitutional contentions had been advanced. Edwards held that a judge nonetheless may ascertain (using the preponderance standard) the type and amount of drugs involved, and impose a sentence based on that conclusion, as long as the sentence does not exceed the statutory maximum. According to my colleagues: “This was of course the understanding before Blakely, but Blakely redefined ‘statutory maximum.’ ” 375 F.3d at 514. Maybe so, but if so it is just a reason why Edwards is on its last legs. It does not imply that we are entitled to put it in a coffin while it is still breathing.
Just as opera stars often go on singing after being shot, stabbed, or poisoned, so judicial opinions often survive what could be fatal blows. Think of Lemon v. Kurtzman, 411 U.S. 192, 93 S.Ct. 1463, 36 L.Ed.2d 151 (1973), which is incompatible with later decisions, has been disparaged by most sitting Justices, yet has not been overruled. Closer to the mark is Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224, 118 S.Ct. 1219, 140 L.Ed.2d 350 (1998), decided one month before Edwards and, like it, in tension with Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), on which Blakely rests. Almendarez-Torres holds that juries need not be asked to determine a defendant’s criminal history even for purposes of recidivist statutes that use convictions to increase the maximum sentence. Four Justices, dissenting in Almendarez-Torres, made the arguments that were to carry the day two years later in Apprendi, when they were joined by Justice Thomas, who had been in the Almendarez-Torres majority. See 523 U.S. at 248-71, 118 S.Ct. 1219 (Scalia, J., joined by Stevens, Souter & Ginsburg, JJ., dissenting). Justice Thomas wrote that he now considers Almendarez-Torres wrongly decided. Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 518-21, 120 S.Ct. 2348 (Thomas, J., concurring). One might think Almendarez-Torres doomed, but it has not been overruled, and Blakely repeats a formula that carves out recidivist enhancements. We routinely apply Almendarez-Torres, saying that its fate rests with the Supreme Court alone. Edwards should receive the same treatment.
To support the view that Edwards no longer is authoritative, the majority notes *517that none of the opinions in Blakely cited it. Why would it pass without mention if it is a (logical) casualty of Blakely? Well, one reason could be that Edwards is not a logical casualty; that’s the substantive question I discuss later. The other is that the question was left undecided. Blakely tells us: “The United States, as amicus curiae, urges us to affirm. It notes differences between Washington’s sentencing regime and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines but questions whether those differences are constitutionally significant. See Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 25-30. The Federal Guidelines are not before us, and we express no opinion on them.” 124 S.Ct. at 2538 n. 9. Having disclaimed views about the Guidelines, the Justices had no occasion to parse Edwards. I find it odd that my colleagues should focus on what the Court did not do (cite Edwards) while slighting what it did do (declare that analysis of the federal Guidelines is a different kettle of fish). What’s more, although the Court did not attend to Edivards in Blakely, it did so in Apprendi itself, writing:
The principal dissent ... treats us to a lengthy disquisition on the benefits of determinate sentencing schemes, and the effect of today’s decision on the federal Sentencing Guidelines. Post, at 544-552 [120 S.Ct. 2348]. The Guidelines are, of course, not before the Court. We therefore express no view on the subject beyond what this Court has already held. See, e.g., Edwards v. United States, 523 U.S. 511, 515, 118 S.Ct. 1475, 140 L.Ed.2d 703 (1998) (opinion of Breyer, J., for a unanimous court) (noting that “[o]f course, petitioners’ statutory and constitutional claims would make a difference if it were possible to argue, say, that the sentences imposed exceeded the maximum that the statutes permit for a cocaine-only conspiracy. That is because a maximum sentence set by statute trumps a higher sentence set forth in the Guidelines. [United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual § 5G1.1 (Nov. 1994) ]”).
530*U.S". at 497 n. 21, 120 S.Ct. 2348. So the Justices see the links connecting the sixth amendment, Apprendi, Edwards, statutory máximums, and the federal Sentencing Guidelines. It is for them, not us, to say that as a result of Blakely this linkage scuttles Edwards. (Other casualties of the majority’s approach are United States v. Watts, 519 U.S. 148, 117 S.Ct. 633, 136 L.Ed.2d 554 (1997), which holds that a judge may increase a sentence based on relevant conduct of which the defendant had been acquitted by the jury, and United States v. Dunnigan, 507 U.S. 87, 113 S.Ct. 1111, 122 L.Ed.2d 445 (1993), which holds that to decide whether the defendant receives a higher sentence for obstructing justice the judge may (indeed must) decide independently of the jury whether the defendant committed perjury at trial. See also McMillan v. Pennsylvania, 477 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 2411, 91 L.Ed.2d 67 (1986), which Blakely distinguished, but which on my colleagues’ view is a dead letter.)
Now to substance. Apprendi establishes, 530 U.S. at 490, 120 S.Ct. 2348, and Blakely reiterates, 124 S.Ct. at 2536, this rule: “Other than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt.” Shortly after Apprendi was released, we held that the “statutory maximum” means whatever statutory criteria make a person eligible for a given punishment. Consider 21 Ú.S.Ó. § 841, which establishes three máximums for cocaine-distribution offenses; distribution of any quantity permits a sentence up to 20 years *518(§ 841(b)(1)(C)); distribution of more than 500 grams (or 5 grams of cocaine base) raises the maximum to 40 years (§ 841(b)(1)(B)®, (iii)); distribution of more than 5 kilograms (or 50 grams of cocaine base) raises the statutory maximum to life (§ 841(b)(1)(A)®, (iii)). In United States v. Nance, 236 F.3d 820, 824-25 (7th Cir.2000), we held that the thresholds (500 grams and 5 kilograms) must be charged in the indictment and established beyond a reasonable doubt to the jury’s satisfaction (if the defendant does not waive jury trial or admit the quantities). Otherwise the maximum is 20 years. Once the trier of fact has determined that the defendant distributed at least 500 grams or 5 kilograms, the sixth amendment has been satisfied and choosing a sentence below the statutory limit is for the judge alone, on the preponderance of the evidence. See, e.g., Talbott v. Indiana, 226 F.3d 866, 869-70 (7th Cir.2000).
Blakely is the Supreme Court’s analog to Nance. Just as § 841 provides a maximum of life imprisonment for distributing cocaine only if the defendant distributed at least 5 kilograms (or 50 grams of cocaine base) — otherwise the maximum is 20 or 40 years — so Washington establishes a 10-year maximum sentence for second-degree kidnapping, but (according to a" second statute) only if the defendant acted with “deliberate cruelty” — otherwise the maximum is 3 years. Washington contended that the relevant “statutory -maximum” was 10 years; this is equivalent to arguing that the “statutory maximum” in all federal cocaine prosecutions is life. The Court disagreed and held that the relevant “statutory maximum” is the lowest of all arguably pertinent statutory caps, unless the jury, makes the finding that raises the limit.
According to my colleagues, Blakely goes beyond what was necessary to decide the validity of Washington’s system by giving this definition of “statutory maximum”:
In other words, the relevant “statutory maximum” is not the maximum sentence a judge may impose after finding additional facts, but the maximum he may impose without any additional findings. When a judge inflicts punishment that the jury’s verdict alone does not allow, the jury has not found all the facts “which the law makes essential to the punishment,” ... and the judge exceeds his proper authority.
124 S.Ct. at 2537 (emphasis in original). I do not see here the startling consequences my colleagues find. This says exactly what we held in Nance: one must start with the lowest statutory maximum and ask the jury to make findings that raise the sentence to which the defendant is exposed.
Blakely arose from a need to designate one of two statutes as the “statutory maximum”. Washington called its statutes “sentencing guidelines,” but names do not change facts. Nonetheless, the reading my colleagues give to this passage is that it does not matter whether the maximum is statutory; any legal rule, of any source (statute, regulation, guideline) that affects a sentence must go to a jury. Certainly Blakely does not hold that; it could not “hold” that given that it dealt with statutes exclusively. Attributing to Blakely the view that it does not matter whether a given rule appears in a statute makes hash of “statutory maximum.” Why did the Justices deploy that phrase in Apprendi and repeat it in Blakely (and quite a few other decisions)? Just to get a chuckle at the expense of other judges who took them seriously and thought that “statutory maximum” might have something to do with statutes? Why write “statutory maximum” if you mean “all circumstances that go into ascertaining the proper sentence”?
*519Going Blakely one better, today’s majority says that as a matter of constitutional law there cannot be any difference between statutes and other sources of rules: “it is hard to believe that the fact that the guidelines are promulgated by the U.S. Sentencing Commission rather than by a legislature can make a difference. The Commission is exercising power delegated to it by Congress, and if a legislature cannot evade what the Supreme Court deems the commands of the Constitution by a multistage sentencing scheme neither, it seems plain, can a regulatory agency.” 375 F.3d at 511. For the vital proposition that anything functionally equivalent to a statute (from the perspective of a criminal defendant) must be treated as a statute, the majority cites — nothing. Phrases such as “it seems plain” are poor substitutes for authority in the Constitution’s text or interpretive history.
The majority’s proposition is refuted by Blakely itself, which tells us that legislatures may delegate such issues to the judiciary and parole boards without offending the sixth amendment. The Court considered whether there would be a constitutional problem with open-ended sentencing, such as a statute allowing any person convicted of burglary to be sentenced to any term of years up to 40. Blakely, 124 S.Ct. at 2540-41. If the law left that decision to the judiciary, the court said, there would be no problem even if the sentencing judge applied (as a matter of common law) the rule “10 years unless the burglar uses a gun; if a gun, then 40 years.” Put that algorithm in a statute and the sixth amendment commits to the jury the question whether the burglar was armed; put the same algorithm in a judicial opinion and the sixth amendment allows the judge to make the decision. The Court saw this not as an “evasion” but as a natural application of the Constitution.
“Statutory” in the phrase “statutory maximum” is not an inept short-hand. Apprendi and Blakely hold that the sixth amendment allocates to the jury all elements of the offense, plus all statutory details that are enough like elements that differences in phraseology should not be allowed to affect the defendant’s rights. Example: the statutory quantity thresholds in § 841 are not “elements” of that offense, see United States v. Bjorkman, 270 F.3d 482 (7th Cir.2001), because a low quantity does not lead to acquittal; distributing any detectable quantity is a criminal offense. But the statute works much as if Congress had enacted multiple degrees of a crime. Just as the distinctions between manslaughter and first-degree murder .(such as malice aforethought) must be proved to a jury’s satisfaction, so the distinctions between simple and aggravated distribution must be shown. Blakely treated Washington as having established three degrees of kidnapping: the distinction between second- and third-degree kidnapping was deliberate cruelty. Having embedded this distinction in its statute books, the Court held, Washington could not cut the jury out' of the process. This understanding of the sixth amendment has nothing to do with sentencing if there is only one degree of an offense (the Court’s example of burglary with a 40-year maximum), or if the defendant has been convicted of the highest degree. Booker has been convicted of “cocaine distribution in the first degree” and the jury’s verdict authorizes life imprisonment. What happens after that is unrelated to the sixth amendment. This is why the rule of Ap-prendi and Blakely is confined to statutes, why they do not affect statutory minimum sentences, see Harris v. United States, 536 U.S. 545, 122 S.Ct. 2406, 153 L.Ed.2d 524 (2002), why regulations and guidelines that affect sentencing after the “degree” of an offense has been fixed by the jury do not *520transgress the limits set by the sixth amendment, and why (capital punishment aside) Apprendi and Blakely are irrelevant if the jury’s verdict authorizes life imprisonment. See United States v. Smith, 223 F.3d 554 (7th Cir.2000).
Think of the indeterminate sentence: zero-to-life with release in the discretion of parole officials. The federal Parole Commission eventually developed a set of release guidelines designed to ensure consistent treatment of offenders. See United States v. Addonizio, 442 U.S. 178, 99 S.Ct. 2235, 60 L.Ed.2d 805 (1979). Parole-release guidelines might say something like: “Hold bank robbers in prison for 10 years; hold armed bank robbers for 20; hold armed bank robbers who discharge their weapons or take hostages for 30; add (or subtract) time from these presumptive numbers to reflect the size of the heist.” If my colleagues are right, then such a system violates the sixth amendment. Yet the Justices do not think this a problem, as parole and other forms of executive clemency don’t affect the degree of the offense and therefore do not undercut the jury’s role. See Blakely, 124 S.Ct. at 2540. If parole regulations are valid, why not the federal Sentencing Guidelines? How could commissioners, but not judges, be "free to apply regulations that depend on how much cocaine the defendant distributed, or whether he pulled a gun on the teller? Once the jury has determined the degree (and the statutory consequences) of the offense, both judges and executive officials constitutionally may take part in determining how much of the statutory maximum the defendant serves in prison.
One other point about the federal sentencing guidelines: Given the matrix-like nature of the system and the possibility of departure, see 18 U.S.C. § 3553(b); U.S.S.G. § 5K2.0; Koon v. United States, 518 U.S: 81, 116 S.Ct. 2035, 135 L.Ed.2d 392 (1996), the only finding that is indispensable to Booker’s sentence is the one specified by statute: did he distribute more than 50 grams of cocaine base? The jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that he had. Where in the resulting statutory range of 10 years to life the actual sentence falls depends on complex interactions among drug quantity, gun use, violence, role in the offense (was defendant the mastermind or just a courier?), cooperation, obstruction of justice, criminal history, and other factors, none of which is a sine qua non in the same sense as the statutory thresholds. See U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1 (21 pages long and just a starting point; later chapters provide many adjustments). No answer to the question “what was the total quantity?” gives any defendant a legal entitlement to a particular sentence. Lower quantities of drugs can be counterbalanced by a longer criminal history or a more senior role in the offense, or the judge may decide that upward departure is appropriate. Even if Blakely’s definition reaches regulations adopted by a body such as the Sentencing Commission, it requires an extra step (or three) to say that the jury must make the dozens of findings that matter to the Guidelines’ operation in each case.
Apprendi and Blakely hold that the sixth amendment commits to juries all statutory sentencing thresholds. Perhaps the Court eventually will hold that some or all of the additional determinations that affect sentences under the federal Sentencing Guidelines also are the province of jurors. But Blakely does not take that step, nor does its intellectual framework support it — and Edwards holds that the current structure is valid provided that juries make all decisions that jack the maximum sentences. I would treat Blakely as holding-that, when there are multiple statutory caps, the “statutory' maximum” is the lowest one and the jury must deter*521mine whether statutory thresholds to increased ranges have been satisfied. To read more into Blakely is to attribute to that opinion something beyond its holding, and to overthrow the real holdings of other decisions.
Today’s decision will discombobulate the whole criminal-law docket. I trust that our superiors will have something to say about this. Soon.