Can a significant procedural error be deemed harmless when the sentencing judge uses the statutory maximum as the baseline for imposition of sentence?

Question Presented for Review Expressed _in the Terms and Circumstances of the Case. This Court has made it clear that the Sentencing Guidelines are the “starting point and the initial benchmark” in federal sentencing proceedings. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 49 (2007). Furthermore, “[e]ven if the sentencing judge sees a reason to vary from the Guidelines, ‘if the judge uses the sentencing range as the beginning point to explain the decision to deviate from it, then the Guidelines are in areal sense the basis for the sentence.’” Peugh v. United States, 569 U.S. 530, 542 (2013), quoting Freeman yv. United States, 564 U.S. 522, 529 (2011). Contrary to holdings in the Fourth, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits, the Tenth Circuit held in this case that a significant procedural error was harmless even though the sentencing judge used the statutory maximum as the baseline for sentencing. Can a significant procedural error be deemed harmless when the sentencing judge uses the statutory maximum as the baseline for imposition of sentence? 1 (b) List of all