Taking stock and looking ahead

With another big Blakely week in the books, and yet another one coming, now is a good time to take stock and look ahead.

On the federal front: The government is due to file today its reply brief in Booker and Fanfan, and in posts this weekend I suggested the SG has its work cut out for it. Specifically, in a post here about the state of the briefing before the Supreme Court, as well as in subsequent posts about sentencing chaos and sentencing windfalls, I explain why I think the respondents have had the better of the arguments to date. I am very eager to see the SG's reply brief, and I will post the brief as soon as I get it.

On the state front: I did another post this weekend on California's Three Strikes law, as well as posts on Blakely in the states here and here. Later this week, the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission is due to follow up the short-term recommendations it made to Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty in response to Blakely (available here with commentary here and here). The Minnesota SG Commission's website reports that the Commission will submit its long-term recommendations to the Governor by Sept. 30.

On the academic front: I spent part of the weekend reviewing proofs from the second special Federal Sentencing Reporter issue on Blakely. Watch this space for more details soon about the whole issue, which includes articles by Professors Albert Alschuler and Steven Chanenson that were cited in a number of the briefs filed last week. Details about the first FSR Blakely issue, and about ordering the journal, can be found here.

In addition, Professor Robert Weisberg sent me the finalized agenda for the exciting Blakely event taking place at Stanford Law School Oct. 8-9 (discussed here). The event is entitled "The Future of American Sentencing: A National Roundtable on Blakely," and a finished version of the program can be accessed here:
Download final_stanford_blakely_agenda.doc