A Booker anniversary reading list

A year ago today, the Supreme Court transformed the federal guidelines into advisory sentencing rules by declaring in Booker that "the Sixth Amendment as construed in Blakely does apply to the [federal] Sentencing Guidelines" and that "two provisions of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (SRA) that have the effect of making the Guidelines mandatory must be invalidated in order to allow the statute to operate in a manner consistent with congressional intent."   

A year later, I am amazed both by how much and how little of an impact this decision has had on federal sentencing realities, and also by how much and how little we really know about its impact.  Reviewing some initial blog reactions (here and here), as well as my comments during interviews on PBS and NPR, highlights for me how many of the big post-Booker questions still remain unanswered.

So, what should one get to celebrate the birthday of a case which has everything?  I asked my terrific research assistant to assemble a "Booker anniversary reading list" with items that merit review on this auspicious day to help assess where the federal sentencing system has been and where it might be going.  This list, which includes key cases and valuable secondary materials (and also, of course, has many unavoidable omissions), can be downloaded here:

Download booker_anniversary_reading_list.doc