FAMM writes extended letter to Prez Trump to "strongly discourage" re-nomination of Bill Otis to US Sentencing Commission
As reported in this prior post, back in March 2018 Prez Trump announced this notable slate of nominations to the US Sentencing Commission. Though it is usually only hard-core sentencing nerds like me who pay much attention to USSC nominations, this slate of nominees, especially the nomination of Bill Otis, prompted considerable critical commentary from various sources (which I covered in posts here and here). Perhaps in part because these nominees were controversial, the Senate never acted on them in 2018 and the nominations lapsed when the "old" Senate officially adjourned.
It is fairly common, once a new Senate is in place, for a President to simply renominate many past nominees who were not acted upon by a prior Senate. The folks at FAMM, however, are now actively advocating that Prez Trump not follow this tradition in the case of Bill Otis. Specifically, this new FAMM press release reports that "FAMM sent a letter to President Donald J. Trump discouraging the re-nomination of William Otis to the U.S. Sentencing Commission." Here are some passages from the start and end of the four-page letter, which is authored by FAMM President Kevin Ring:
I am writing to strongly discourage you from nominating William Otis to serve on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Mr. Otis’s long and controversial record, marked by hostility to evidence-based criminal justice reform, contradicts your administration’s leadership in passing the First Step Act....
Given these roles the Commission is expected to play, it is vital that the individuals appointed to serve on the Commission approach their job with an open mind and a willingness to consider fully all of the data and evidence available to them. Over the years, FAMM has disagreed with the policy views held by nominees to the Commission, but we did not oppose their confirmation because we believe that, once confirmed, they would be persuaded and guided by data and evidence.
The very extensive public record of Mr. William Otis gives us no such hope. Mr. Otis is an ideologue who seems impervious to evidence and data....
When you nominated Mr. Otis last year, FAMM broke its 27-year-long policy against taking a position on nominees to the Commission. We believed then, and continue to believe today, that Mr. Otis would damage the Commission’s ability to tackle initiatives in a collaborative and thoughtful way.
We do not wish to silence Mr. Otis and his views. Mr. Otis certainly has a place in the public policy debate on criminal justice policy. That place, we respectfully submit, is not one of the seven seats on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, where an openness to evidence and data is crucial. Please do not nominate him again.
The final paragraph of this letter really struck me because of two practical ironies. First, the decision by Prez Trump to nominate Bill Otis to the USSC actually did serve to effectively silence him as he stopped blogging at Crime & Consequences and did not make any public statements amidst all the debates over federal criminal justice reform that raged in 2018. Second, because there are currently only two active Sentencing Commissioners and four are needed to form a quorum, the US Sentencing Commission is itself effectively silenced right now with respect to making any changes to the sentencing guidelines until at least two more members are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
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