United States v. Nelson Guerrero, Cesar Rivera and Anthony Medina

JON 0. NEWMAN, Circuit Judge:

This appeal presents two issues concerning the application of the Sentencing Guidelines. One, likely to recur in the future, is whether a sentencing judge may depart upward from a guideline range because of the amount of narcotics involved, notwithstanding the fact that the United States Sentencing Commission has established a hierarchy of guideline ranges scaled in relation to narcotic quantities. A preliminary issue, pertinent only to offenses committed during the interval between November 1, 1987, and January 15, 1988, is whether the appropriate guideline range…