First Principles and Practical Politics: Thoughts on Judge Pryor’s Proposal to Revive Presumptive Federal Sentencing Guidelines

In recent remarks to the American Law Institute, Judge William Pryor recommended abandonment of the post-"Booker" advisory version of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and adoption of a simplified presumptive federal guidelines system. Here, Bowman relates that he has been making variants of the same argument for the past ten years--as co-reporter to the Constitution Project's bipartisan sentencing initiative, as a contributor in the Model Sentencing Guidelines Working Group that in 2006 wrote and published a set of simplified Booker-compliant guidelines, as a witness before the US Sentencing Commission, and in his private academic capacity. He also explains why he now feels skepticism about Judge Pryor's proposals.