While you were barbequing...

I did get some R&R over the weekend, but I could not help spending parts of the Labor Day laboring over the briefs filed in Booker and Fanfan. Some of my (not-too-brief) brief commentary includes reviews of the Bizarro judges' brief, the mis-filed Senators' brief, and the page-turning briefs from the SG and USSC. In addition, this post on federalism and retroactivity probes some deeper issues lurking in Booker and Fanfan.

Finally, I wonder if the Fourth Circuit took advantage of the long weekend to finally finish an opinion in Hammoud. It is now over 5 full weeks since the court issued its (opaque) order declaring Blakely inapplicable to the federal guidelines, but recommending that district courts announce alternative sentences. As detailed here, the compelling facts in Hammoud are perhaps slowing down the Fourth Circuit (recall that Hammoud had more than 150 years added to a sentence of less than 5 years based on judge-found facts).