Cunningham opinion basics

The full Cunningham opinion can now be accessed via Westlaw (and is also likely soon to be available here).  I’ll need a few hours — perhaps even a few days or weeks — to take in all in.  But here are the basics:

1.  Justice Ginsburg wrote the opinion for the Court, which is joined by Justices Stevens, Scalia, Souter, Thomas and (consensus-builder?) CJ Roberts.

2.  Justice Alito wrote the main dissent in which Justices Kenney and Breyer joined.  It starts with this notable sentence: “The California sentencing law that the Court strikes down today is indistinguishable in any constitutionally significant respect from the advisory Guidelines scheme that the Court approved in United States v. Booker, 543 U. S. 220 (2005).”

3.  Justice Kennedy wrote an additional dissent in which Justice Breyer joined (and which kindly cites my recent piece with Stephanos Bibas, Making Sentencing Sensible, 4 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 37 (2006)).