SCOTUS speaks: Booker and Fanfan have arrived!!

Not a moment too soon, we finally have an opinion in Booker and Fanfan!! All I know is that it is long and messy, but it appears Blakely applies to the federal guidelines, with Justices Stevens and Breyer both writing parts of the Court’s opinion.  More soon!

UPDATE: Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog has key language from the opinions here, and I hope to have links to the full opinions within the hour.

Here are the links: As promised, here is the link to Justice Stevens’ partial opinion for the Court, here is the link to Justice Breyer’s partial opinion for the Court, here is the link to a partial dissent by Justice Scalia, here is the link to Justice Thomas’ partial dissent, here is the link to Justice Breyers’ partial dissent, and here is the link to Justice Stevens’ partial dissent.  And here is a link to the whole messy ball of wax, including the 6 page syllabus.

I will need some time to digest all 6 opinions (6 opinions!!), which run 118 total pages (118 pages!!).  But I should have lots and lots of commentary to follow throughout the day.  In the meantime, I hope readers will use the comments to share their views on whether the opinion was worth the wait.

The essence of the holdings: From Stevens’ opinion:

We hold that both courts correctly concluded that the Sixth Amendment as construed in Blakely does apply to the Sentencing Guidelines. In a separate opinion authored by JUSTICE BREYER, the Court concludes that in light of this holding, two provisions of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (SRA) that have the effect of making the Guidelines mandatory must be invalidated in order to allow the statute to operate in a manner consistent with congressional intent.