What Will Justice Kavanaugh Mean for Criminal Tax Defendants?

November 15, 2018  |  New York Law Journal

Notwithstanding the controversy surrounding Brett Kavanaugh’s recent appointment to the Supreme Court, practitioners need to consider how he will impact the Court’s jurisprudence for many years to come. Regardless of what they think about Justice Kavanaugh’s record on other issues, criminal defense lawyers are likely to view his approach to the imposition of sentencing as somewhat of a mixed bag. In this article, we note that while Justice Kavanaugh has articulated concerns that the post-Booker regime has brought too much unpredictability to sentencing, his decisions have demonstrated deference to district judges, who frequently give defendants convicted of tax offenses the benefit of substantial downward variances.

What Will Justice Kavanaugh Mean for Criminal Tax Defendants? (pdf | 423.50 KB)