The Supreme Court in one ruling addressed the case of Derrick Kimbrough, a convicted crack dealer arrested in Virginia. The guidelines called for a sentence of 14 to 17.5 years in prison, but a Virginia federal judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison for the drug-related portion of his conviction.

An appeals court overturned Kimbrough's sentence, but the Supreme Court reversed the appeals court decision.

The Supreme Court also reversed an appeals court decision regarding an Iowa man, Brian Gall, involving his distribution of the drug Ecstacy.

Although the two cases involved drug convictions, the impact will affect prison sentences for all federal crimes.

Cassell describes what occurred as "a shift of sentencing power from the courts of appeals to trial court judges" and a message to appellate courts to intervene only on rare occasions to correct disparate sentences.

As former chairman of the Judicial Conference's Criminal Law Committee, Cassell spoke for the federal judiciary when he sent a letter to the president and Congress supporting the Federal Sentencing Commission's recommendation to reduce sentences for crack cocaine possession versus powder.

"One possible difficulty is that with hundreds of judges around the country, there is a risk of having geographical disparities creep into the system. There needs to be some kind of common currency for all judges around the country," Cassell said.

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