SCOTUS releases first big order list of October Term 2021 … with little of particular sentencing note

It is the first Monday in October, which means SCOTUS gets its first big day of the new Term started with this big order list full of a whole lot of denials of certiorari in cases that stacked up through the summer.  As noted in this prior post, the Justices released a short order last week in which it granted cert in a handful of new cases (including a crack resentencing case).  So, the new order list is just a few GVRs, more cert denials than I can count, and also a few statements by Justices Breyer and Sotomayor concerning a few criminal case cert denials.

Notably, especially because SCOTUS is hearing another ACCA case this morning, the case prompting the most GVRs on this new SCOTUS order list is the Borden ACCA case from last term (basics here).  In addition, one of the statements from Justice Sotomayor is in an ACCA case from the Sixth Circuit.  The Armed Career Criminal Act is clearly that confusing federal law that is the ugly jurisprudential gift that keeps on giving.

In this post last week, I flagged some notable sentencing issues on SCOTUSblog’s “Petitions to Watch.”  It appears that cert was denied in roughly half of the cases listed in that prior post, but the other cases do not appeal to be mentioned on this first order list.  If those other cases have been relisted for more consideration by the Justices, that bodes well for a few more notable sentencing cases being added to the SCOTUS docket this Term.  As always, stay tuned.

UPDATE: Over at Crime & Consequences, Kent Scheidegger has a brief criminal-justice review of the order list today titled “The Long List from the Long Conference“