Whew…..

I did not think the Blakely story could move any faster, but the last 36 hours certainly proved me wrong. In a dueling set of briefs filed over the last two days (available here and here), the defendants’ counsel and the Acting Solicitor General summarized events in the remarkable post-Blakely federal sentencing world and also marked out some (though not all) of the remarkable post-Blakely federal sentencing battlegrounds.

As effectively detailed in this post by Lyle Denniston at the SCOTUSBlog, the litigants now can get some well-deserved sleep, but the Justices and their staffs may be in for a few restless nights. Insiders have been predicting that the Supreme Court will take action this Monday, August 2, but there are extremely challenging issues the High Court must confront in whatever action it decides to take. There are (at least) four cases competing for the Supreme Court’s attention, and also compelling debates over how the “Questions Presented” should be framed. Amazing times.

Though all the briefs merit careful review, I think the SG’s “Reply in Support of Motion to Expedite” (posted again here) is the one document to read if you are only going to read one.
Download motion_to_expedite_reply.pdf