While primary rules of law can confer upon judges the duty to impose particular types of sentences for specific types of crimes, secondary rules of law (e.g., the Federal probation statute) allow such sentences to be suspended and probationary dispositions imposed in their place. This union of primary and secondary rules was used conspicuously during at least two periods of social and political change: the prohibition era and the Vietnam war era. During these periods, unenforceable laws remained on the books but were minimized in their consequences through the use of probationary sentences. Recent presidential administrations can be characterized by the symbolic concerns they addressed through the criminal courts. The Kennedy and Johnson administrations were characterized by a sensitivity to inequalities before the law and an expressed desire to remedy them; the Nixon administration focused on the crimes of the poor; and the Ford administration reacted to 'Watergate' by assigning new priority to the prosecution of white collar crime, political corruption, and other crimes in high places. The symbolic postures of each new administration can be implemented through U.S. attorneys and their assistants in district and in appointing Federal district court judges. Overall, political changes and conflicts have important implications for patterns of criminal sanctioning. Twenty-one references are listed.