Just when you thought it was safe to go into the blog…
On a day I was hoping would be quiet so I could wrap up critical pre-vacation tasks, we get yet one more major event: another thoughtful and insightful (and long) Blakely opinion from district judge who is rightly regarded as an intellectual leader in the field of sentencing. Available for download below is US District Judge Gerald Lynch’s opinion in US v. Emmenegger. As an esteemed sentencing scholar noted when sending me this opinion:
Like Judge Nancy Gertner, Judge Lynch is one of the most sophisticated judges on the federal bench in sentencing issues. And yet we see Judges Gertner and Lynch at odds on the main issue: Judge Lynch “remains convinced” of the constitutionality of the federal guidelines (Emmenegger at 38) while Judge Gertner sees “no question that [Blakely‘s] test applies to the federal guidelines. ” (Mueffleman at 22). Further proof was not needed that the Supreme Court has rendered the current law in this field unintelligible, but here it is.