A sentencing aside amidst all the SCOTUS speculation

Today’s above-the-fold front-page article in the New York Times is all about President Obama’s legal past as he prepares to make a pick for the Supreme Court’s future.  This article, which is headlined “As a Professor, a Pragmatist About the Supreme Court,” includes this notable aside noting how President Obama addressed sentencing issues back when he was Professor Obama:

Former students say that Mr. Obama does not particularly prize consistency or broad principle…. [W]hen it came to sentencing laws, Mr. Obama led [student Adam] Bonin in a more conservative direction than the student had expected.  The primary victims of black criminals were fellow blacks — and so minority neighborhoods had an interest in keeping sentencing laws tough, he taught.