Relaxing Federal Sentencing Laws

As reported by RollCall a recent collaboration between Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has produced new legislation that would enable judges to hand down lesser sentences. These penalties would be below the federally required minimum punishments. Senator Paul said,

Rand Paul (en.wikipedia.org)

“[mandatory minimum sentencing laws] reflect a Washington-knows-best, one-size-fits-all approach, which undermines the constitutional separation of powers, violates the bedrock principle that people should be treated as individuals, and costs the taxpayers money without making them any safer.”

This collaboration between a libertarian Republican and a liberal Democrat illustrates a potential divided between libertarians and conservatives when it comes to the rule of law.