Editor\u27s Observations: It\u27s Alive! The Federal Booker-Fix Debate Sirs

Seven years have passed since Justice Ginsburg do-si-doed from the merits majority to the remedial majority in Booker and transformed the Federal Sentencing Guidelines into an advisory system.\u27 And despite the logical absurdity of the Scalian Sixth Amendment doctrine that produced this outcome,\u27 and despite the expectation of folks like me that this marriage of fish and fowl could not long survive, it survives. What is more, a great many people whose opinion matters now claim to love it-or at least to like it well enough to want to keep it for the foreseeable future. Thus, the outburst of legislative concern that followed the Blakely-Booker duo in 2004-2005 died away. Among the primary stakeholders in the day-to-day operation of the federal sentencing system-prosecutors, defense lawyers, and judges-the debate ceased to be dominated by the question of whether a sweeping Booker fix was called for and turned to the mechanics of making the system work to their particular advantag