Is it en banc time for Ameline?

David Porter over at the Ninth Circuit Blog here last week detailed that the government has sought expedited consideration of whether to rehear en banc the Ninth Circuit’s important Ameline ruling (basics here, commentary here), and has also filed a motion to defer disposition of all pending direct criminal appeals presenting Booker claims pending resolution of the government’s petition for rehearing en banc).  A copy of the government’s en banc petition is available here.  In addition to providing the government’s arguments on plain error issue, the brief has some very interesting statements about the practical consequences of mass remands in the circuit”whose district judges impose more Guidelines sentences per year than any other Circuit.”