Why Lopez is a big deal

A commentor here and FPD Steve Sady have effectively pointed out that I was quite wrong to suggest that today’s SCOTUS decision in Lopez v. Gonzales might not be a big deal (basics here).  As Steve explains in this post, the Supreme Court has previously “said that the definition of ‘crime of violence’ under the immigration statute and ‘aggravated felony’ had to have the same meaning in both sentencing and immigration contexts.”  Consequently, for complex reasons Steve details in his post, Lopez is actually a pretty big sentencing case because it reverses bad guidelines sentencing law in nearly every circuit.

UPDATE:  How Appealing has now collected newspaper coverage of Lopez here.