Ninth Circuit issues Ameline!

Thanks to this post at How Appealing, I see news that the Ninth Circuit has finally issued its en banc Booker plain error decision in Ameline.  According to Howard’s report, the decision runs a total of 103 pages, and “the court, through a seven-judge majority, agrees to apply the Second and Seventh Circuits’ limited remand approach.”

UPDATE:  Here is a link to the Ameline decision, but it is giving me trouble (and the document is in a form now precluding cut-and-paste).  Here’s a quick transcription of the key paragraph from the introduction:

[W]e hold that when we are faced with an unpreserved Booker error that may have affected a defendant’s substantial rights, and the record is insufficiently clear to conduct a complete plain error analysis, a limited remand to the district court is appropriate for the purpose of ascertaining whether the sentence imposed would have been materially different had the district court known that the sentencing guidelines were advisory….  In essence, we elect to follow the approach adopted by the Second Circuit in US v. Crosby, 397 F.3d 103 (2d Cir. 2005).

ANOTHER UPDATE: A quick scan suggests that Ameline majority opinion ends with a seemingly coy discussion of the burden of proof at sentencing.  I highly encourage readers to comments on this or any other aspect of the decision while I head for a plane.