Two for Tuesday from the 7th Circuit

Though the discussion of plain error coming from Eleventh Circuit judges is perhaps the most noteworthy of the Booker circuit developments Tuesday (details here), two opinions from the Seventh Circuit caught my eye and merit brief mention:

• In US v. Lewis, No. 03-4100 (7th Cir. Apr. 19, 2005) (available here), Judge Easterbrook expounds on Shepard and the use of criminal history under the guidelines, explaining along the way that “[w]hat matters is the fact of conviction, rather than the facts behind the conviction.”

• In US v. Cunningham, No. 03-3006 (7th Cir. Apr. 19, 2005) (available here), Judge Coffey explains, in a decision that also has a brief discussion of reasonableness, why a Paladino remand is not required in a case in which the sentencing judge departed upward based on (uncharged) relevant conduct in a child pornography case.