Weekend Update

The weekend allowed for reflection by both commentators and reporters, and I first want to highlight recent posts on waiver, severability and retroactivity, all topics which have generated many questions (at least in my e-mail in-box).

In addition, this morning’s papers reflect reflection by reporters. This article from Oklahoma, with great quotes from judges and lawyers, discusses the major impact and uncertainty that Blakely has caused in local federal courts; this article from New Jersey discusses, in the words of Frank Bowman, the on-going “madness,” and has another academic calling Blakely the “biggest thing since sliced bread, at least in the area of criminal law.” And this article, which primarily discusses the Fourth Circuit’s scheduled en banc hearing next week, has a lawyer colorfully describing the impact of relevant conduct sharply increasing his client’s sentence: “Thomas Jefferson and John Adams are spinning in their graves when something like that happens.”

And while collecting choice Blakely quotes, we should not leave out the work of the Washington Post editorial writers. Keeping up the heat on the Supreme Court, today’s editorial from the Post notes that every branch of the federal government has urged quick Supreme Court action and concludes:

it is hard to imagine a more profound rebuke to its work than seeing all three branches of government declare that the law as the court has interpreted it is so unfathomable that they cannot do their jobs until the court speaks again. That ought to be enough to interrupt a summer vacation.