DOJ speaks!!! (sort of)

I had heard word from various quarters that DOJ circulated to federal prosecutors on Friday a memo with Blakely wisdom and guidance. I just obtained today a copy of that document, which has now been made public. You should be able to access the memo — addressed to All Federal Prosecutors from James Comey, Deputy Attorney General regarding DOJ’s “Legal Positions and Policies in Light of Blakely v. Washington” — through the link here:
Download dag_blakely_memo_7204.wpd

Update: Here’s a pdf version for those struggling to get the other version:
Download dag_blakely_memo_7204.pdf

The memo is a rich read with lots of points for future commentary. For now, here’s the key opening paragraph:

The position of the United States is that the rule announced in Blakely does not apply to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, and that the Guidelines may continue to be constitutionally applied in their intended fashion, i.e., through factfinding by a judge, under the preponderance of the evidence standard, at sentencing. The government’s legal argument, which will be developed more fully in a model brief that the Criminal Division will distribute, is that the lower federal courts are not free to invalidate the Guidelines given the prior Supreme Court decisions upholding their constitutionality, and that, on the merits, the Guidelines are distinguishable from the system invalidated in Blakely.