and the point, senator, is that up before, the probation office is making recommendations and they do so on a case by case basis. that is what congress requires. this is not done at the level of but you admit that, right? sentencing is a discretionary act of a judge. but it s not a numbers game. it s not i understand that congress wanted the guidelines to be mandatory. the supreme court in 2005 determined that they couldn t be. an opinion by justice scalia determined they couldn t be, and congress since then has not come back to amend them or to change them or to make them mandatory again. so there is discretion at sentencing. when you look at the sentencing
sentencing this way sentencing is a discretionary act of a judge, but, it s not a numbers game. it s not i understand that congress wanted the guidelines to be mandatory, the supreme court, in 2005, determined that they couldn t be, in an opinion by justice scalia, determined that they couldn t be. and congress, since then, has not come back to amend them or to change them or to make the mandatory again. so there is discretion at sentencing, and when you look at the sentencing statutes, congress has given the judges, not only the discretion to make the decision, but require judges to do so on an individualized basis, taking into account not only the guidelines, but also various factors including the age of
0 first of two long and intense days of questioning from members of the senate judiciary committee began this morning with democrats using their questions to allow jackson to issue a rebuttal to republican accusations that she has been soft on crime and republicans pressing her on her record as a judge and public defender and bringing up a whole host of conservative hobby horses. things like critical race theory. jackson has tried to stay above the fray in her responses. early on in the hearing, she told democratic senator, dick durbin, quote, i tried to stay in my lane. along with me are claire mccaskill and msnbc political analyst with danielle holly walker, dean and professor at howard school of law and joyce vance, law professor at university of alabama as well as an msnbc legal analyst. we have a few minutes before we go back to the hearing. claire, i want to start with you. just some of the fireworks that happened earlier today. just in the last hour or so. senator ted cruz arriv
other than district, barbara mcquaid. walk us through both sides of the case. what texas hoped to do was build a law that was challenge proof, that couldn t be the subject of a challenge in federal court. and today the supreme court opened the door to those very kinds of challenges. did find some ching in the armor of the law. it bans abortion after six weeks, but it doesn t say that state officials are the ones who enforce it. the enforcement mechanism is allowing anybody anywhere to sue any abortion provider. now, the question was if the texas authorities weren t going to enforce it, then who do you sue? that s what the supreme court case was about. the court unanimously said you can t sue state court judges. they don t enforce anything. by a 5 -4 ruling the court said by the way, chief justice roberts with liberals. by a 5 -4 ruling the court said you can t sue state court clerks
before. he was sure of it. in connection with a murder case. way back in the late eighties. and that memory lit up another one. clear as day. the indelible memory of a bizarre story of college roommate told him one night in 1993, or so. he could hardly believe it then. but now when he saw mary s post, no, it couldn t be. were those old stories somehow connected? maybe mary couldn t tell it. i sent back to her, they wouldn t happen to be in prison for killing old man bob? and she got back and said, yes, they are. in prison for killing old man bob. old man bob was robert karey, our well-known loan shark, drug dealer, and the backdoor murdered in the back of his easter trite home in 1987. kevin was already on the computer that into thousand nine, so he pulled out the michigan department of corrections website and saw