SCOTUS to take up Booker reasonableness!!

I have been predicting that the Supreme Court would have to take up a Booker reasonableness case before too long, and today that prediction became a reality.  Lyle Denniston has the highlights of this exciting news here:

The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether a criminal sentence that is within the federal guidelines is to be treated as reasonable, and thus valid.  It also said it would rule on whether a sentence below the guideline range is reasonable.  It accepted for review two cases on an issue that has led to a multitude of rulings in lower courts, producing a conflict at least on key aspects of that question.

The Court will hear Claiborne v. U.S. (06-5618) and Rita v. U.S. (06-5754), with oral argument probably in February.  In Claiborne, the Court will examine whether a sentence below the guideline range is reasonable, and whether a sentence that varies substantially from the guidelines can only be imposed in extraordinary situations.  In Rita, it will decide whether a sentence within the range is reasonable, whether such a sentence may be presumed to be reasonable, and whether such a sentence may be imposed without full analysis by the judge of factors that might justify a lesser sentence.

WOWSA!  I will do some digging about the details of Claiborne and Rita and report more in forthcoming posts.