] The Supreme Court today placed more limits on the power
] of judges to decide sentences for criminals, voting 5 to
] 4 to set aside a prison term in a Washington State
] kidnapping. The four dissenters predicted that the
] decision would wreak havoc on sentencing procedures in
] many states, and perhaps in the federal penal system as
] well.

This doesn't seem to directly speak to minimum-sentence laws but I'm
not really familiar enough with the case-law to say...

] Justice Scalia wrote, in the biting tone that has become
] his trademark, "The Framers would not have thought it too
] much to demand that, before depriving a man of three more
] years of his liberty, the state should suffer the modest
] inconvenience" of submitting its accusation to a jury.

Justice Stevens rox...