Recent Supreme Court decisions ruled that federal sentencing guidelines are and must always be mandatory in order to ensure equality for all offenders.

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Recent Supreme Court decisions have actually ruled that federal sentencing guidelines are advisory, not mandatory. In the 2005 case United States v. Booker, the Court held that mandatory sentencing guidelines violated the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial because they allowed judges to enhance sentences based on factors that were not proven to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. As a result, federal judges now have more discretion in sentencing and may consider a wider range of factors in determining an appropriate sentence for each individual offender.

Recent Supreme Court Decisions Ruled That Federal Sentencing Guidelines Are