Another reminder that student Notes can influence people, from the recent federal district court decision that holds the federal Sentencing Guidelines unconstitutional (United States v. Green), the judge writes:
The conflict between the Guidelines and the mandate of Apprendi and Ring first came to this Court’s attention when it encountered a February 2004 Note in the Harvard Law Review on the subject. The Court was at that point nearly ready to issue its sentencing opinion in two of these cases, and the sentencing hearings in all of them had occurred some time before that. The Court reexamined the relevant precedent, and it became increasingly clear that the Court could not “conscientiously and with due regard to duty and official oath decline the responsibility” to apply Apprendi and Ring in its sentencing analysis.
The Note is The Unconstitutionality of Determinate Sentencing in Light of the Supreme Court’s “Elements” Jurisprudence, 117 Harv. L.Rev. 1236 (2004), by William J. Trach. Congratulations!
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