Preponderance Standard Still Applies to Sentencings; Crawford Does Not

U.S. v. Bustamante, 2006 WL 2045837 (7/24/06) - Just putting the final nail in the coffin on a couple of Booker issues. (1) As long as the d.ct. applies the guidelines in an advisory fashion, the d.ct. may rely on judicial fact-finding by a preponderance. The prior cases that said this, e.g. Magallanez, are not distinguishable on the grounds that they were plain error cases. (2) Crawford does not require overruling precedent that the Confrontation Clause does not apply to sentencing.