Kimbrough v. United States

This Court’s remedial opinion in United States v. Booker, 543 U. S. 220, 244 (2005), instructed district courts to read the United States Sentencing Guidelines as “effectively advisory,” id., at 245. In accord with 18 U. S. C. § 3553(a), the Guidelines, formerly mandatory, now serve as one factor among several courts must consider in determining an appropriate sentence. Booker further instructed that “reason*91ableness” is the standard controlling appellate review of the sentences district courts impose.

Under the statute criminalizing the manufacture and distribution of crack cocaine, 21 U. S.…