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SENTENCING RESTRICTION CHALLENGED

In unusually strong language, Chief Justice William Rehnquist has asked Congress to repeal a law it passed last year that restricts judges' sentencing discretion.

And he was particularly critical of efforts by Attorney General John Ashcroft and House Republicans to identify and monitor judges who depart from federal sentencing guidelines, a ham-handed way of trying to browbeat judges into imposing stricter sentences.

In his year-end report on the judiciary, Rehnquist said the monitoring "could appear to be an unwarranted and ill-considered effort to intimidate individual judges in the performance of their duties." He need not have used the conditional.

The sentencing restrictions were added to an anti-crime bill last April with little discussion or debate and, said Rehnquist, "without any consideration of the views of the judiciary."

Because of the pay, the workload and the onerous confirmation process, attracting qualified jurists to the federal bench may soon be a real problem, made worse by Congress' weakening their authority and conservative ideologues' peering over their shoulders.  The law, by attempting to enforce rigid adherence to sentencing guidelines, effectively puts more sentencing power in the hands of prosecutors and it also strains the quality of official mercy.

Rehnquist is himself a conservative; certainly he's no one's idea of a bleeding-heart liberal.  And he's backed in his opposition to this law by the Judicial Conference, the organization representing the federal judiciary.

At no time did Congress or the Justice Department, which supports the new law, ever prove a need for this legislation.  The returning Congress should heed the chief justice's words and the judiciary's wishes and repeal the curbs on sentencing.