Report from a great Yale Booker panel

With the rush of happenings in the last few days, I did not get a chance to note that Yale Law School had put together, as detailed here, an amazing panel to discuss Booker.  Fortunately, YLS student Will Baude was in attendance, and he provides an extended account of the event in this post.  In addition to learning that this blog got a plug, I was amused and intrigued by the report on Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben’s discussion of the Booker “paradox” and this report by Will:

[Dreeben] suggested that we were likely headed to rule by 500 different philosopher-kings, but “I’m speaking provocatively because I admire philosopher-kings.”

I cannot help but wonder if this final statement from Dreeben was influenced by the fact that he was sharing a panel with US District Judge Nancy Gertner (although I suppose the right term would then be “philosopher-queen”).  Speaking of Judge Gertner, her comments as reported by Will were also interesting, and it reminded me that we are still awaiting her “official” take on Booker.  (Recall that Judge Gertner’s opinion in US v. Mueffelman, 327 F. Supp. 2d. 79 (D. Mass. 2004), came closest to “predicting” Booker and helped earn her a spot in my mythical Sentencing Judges Hall of Fame.)

Will’s entire account of the Yale event is a great read, and he also reports on comments by Professor (and FSR Founding Editor) Dan Freed and by David Fein, a former federal prosecutor and now white-collar defense lawyer.  I would be eager for any other attendees to add more details in the comments.