U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and others have rejected Attorney General Michael Mukasey's call for Congress to undo a recent decision by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which retroactively reduced the penalties for crack-cocaine offenses, the Associated Press reported Feb. 12.

Mukasey requested that Congress pass a law to reverse the commission's decision before it goes into effect on March 3, claiming that the change in mandatory sentencing laws would result in the release of thousands of violent criminals. Representing the Justice Department, federal prosecutor Gretchen C.F. Shappert told the committee, "I am deeply concerned that the success we are experiencing in some of our most fragile, formerly crack-ravaged communities will be seriously interrupted if these communities are forced to absorb a disproportionate number of convicted felons."

Leahy rejected that assertion, saying, "As the attorney general, himself a former federal judge, should have known ... no one can be released without a hearing before a federal judge who is obligated to evaluate each case and to consider factors such as the criminal history and violence."

"We can't let such scare tactics by the administration deter us from our goal of achieving fairness and legitimacy in the criminal justice system," added Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass). Critics have long contended that the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses discriminated against minority communities.