[dragonwriter]

> The judge will have to abide by the federal sentencing guidelines

The judge will probably adhere to the sentencing guidelines (and will almost certainly use them as a starting point if not), but the guidelines are, like the Pirate Code, "more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules". The Supreme Court has ruled that the judges are constitutionally empowered to depart in either direction from the guidelines sentences within the statutory minimum and maximum for the offenses on which the offender is convicted.