United States v. Booker
United States Supreme Court
543 U.S. 220 (2005)
After a jury convicted Booker (defendant) of drug possession with intent to distribute, carrying a Guidelines range of 210 to 262 months, the sentencing judge found by a preponderance of the evidence that Booker possessed additional drugs and had obstructed justice, enhancing his sentence to 30 years; an intermediate appellate court found this violated the Sixth Amendment and remanded for resentencing, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari to address both the constitutional violation and whether the Guidelines were mandatory.
Whether enhancing a federal sentence based on facts found by a judge under a preponderance-of-the-evidence standard, rather than found by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt, violates the Sixth Amendment, and whether the Federal Sentencing Guidelines are mandatory.