Mistretta v. United States - Impact

Although few would question the need for a system of sentencing guidelines, some observers were disturbed by the Court's rejection, in its Mistretta ruling, of strict separation-of-powers doctrine. Others, however, viewed the ruling as an example of flexibility on the part of the Court--a common-sense decision, as the Court itself had suggested. With Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority v. Citizens for the Abatement of Aircraft Noise (1991), the Court struck down the creation of a congressional review board with veto power over an interstate airport authority, holding that the statute in question violated the doctrine of separation.