Hearing the sweet sounds of Booker
Right after Booker was handed down, I joked in this post that Justice Ginsburg must have been listening to The Who in chambers because the lyrics to Won’t Get Fooled Again captured the essence of the Booker decision. Picking up the musical theme, Marc Fernich and Debra Karlstein ask at the outset of their review of Booker developments whether Booker is “David Byrne’s ‘same as it ever was’? Or Bob Dylan’s ‘revolution in the air’?”
The (iPod-inspired) article by Fernich and Karlstein is formally entitled “United States v. Booker: Miracle or Mirage?” and it is available for download below. The article provides not only an overview of Booker basics, but also an amazingly up-to-the minute review of all the post-Booker federal court rulings. (Even today’s 7th Circuit’s decision on retroactivity is included.) As the authors explain, the article “explores some of Booker’s conflicting legal implications and offers tips for effectively negotiating them.”
Download fernichkarlstein_booker_article.pdf
UPDATE: Marc Fernich and Debra Karlstein have delivered an updated version of their piece incorporating some of the latest cases through Feb. 3. Here it is: