Could SCOTUS address below-guideline sentences in another case?
A thoughtful reader asks:
Wouldn’t it be possible for the Surpeme Court simply to…
- take another case on cert for the same issue in Claiborne (there are a ton of appeals out there on the same issue; US v. Eura, which is on cert from the 4th Cir, to name just one),
- decide in its discretion that it doesn’t need oral argument or briefing to decide the case (certainly, it has discretion to do so),
- and write effectively the same decision with a different facts section?
Is there anything stopping it from doing this?