Wherefore art thou USSC?

A month ago, I was energized by the thought that the Blakely earthquake might provided a unique opportunity for sentencing commissions to play a leading role in reforming sentencing reform (background here). Though I suppose I can still hope, a month later the idea that the US Sentencing Commission would become a leader seems like wishful thinking.

According to the Acting Solicitor General, federal sentencing law is in a state of unprecedented turmoil (details here) in the wake of Blakely. Yet the only Blakely resource the US Sentencing Commission provides on its website is the (now quite dated) written testimony of Commissioners Steer and Sessions before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In that testimony, the Commissioners indicate that the USSC has been “work[ing] intensively with Congress, the Department of Justice, representatives of the federal judiciary, and other interested persons to analyze the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision and help guide the discussion concerning the future of the federal sentencing guidelines system.” That sounds great, but I cannot resist trotting out a well-worn political slogan: “Where’s the beef?”

The USSC surely is collecting lower court Blakely decisions concerning the federal guidelines; why hasn’t the USSC made these decisions publically available in one official location?

The USSC likely has unique insights and opinions about which post-Blakely cases the Supreme Court ought to consider and how the “Questions Presented” ought to be cast; why hasn’t the USSC filed an amicus brief with the Court addressing these critical matters?

The USSC likely is analyzing key data about the possible impact of Blakely on past, present and future federal sentences; why hasn’t the USSC made any official statements about this important data (while avoiding questionable unofficial statements)?

I am confident that the USSC Commissioners and staff have been hard at work since Blakely was decided, but I am disappointed the USSC has not played a more public and effective role in the on-going dialogue about the future of federal sentencing. Because we are only in the midst of the first chapter of a very long story, there is still plenty of time for the USSC to shine. But it is hard to be encouraged by what we have seen so far, which prompts not just the question where is the USSC, but why?