SCOTUS rules for the defendants in Gall and Kimbrough!!

Providing a great Hanukkah present for me and anyone else tired of waiting, today the Supreme Court issued its decision in Gall and Kimbrough. SCOTUSblog here provides the basics:

The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that the federal guidelines on sentencing for cocaine violations are advisory only, rejecting a lower court ruling that they are effectively mandatory.  Judges must consider the Guideline range for a cocaine violation, the Court said, but may conclude that they are too harsh when considering the disparity between punishment for crack cocaine and cocaine in powder form.  Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the decision in Kimbrough v. U.S. (06-6330)....

Ruling in a second Guidelines case, Gall v. U.S. (06-7949), the Court — also by a 7-2 vote — cleared the way for judges to impose sentences below the specified range and still have such punishment regarded as “reasonable.” The Justices, in an opinion written by Justice John Paul Stevens, told federal appeals courts to use a “deferential abuse-of-discretion standard” even when a trial sets sets a punishment below the range.  Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., announced the opinion in Stevens’ absence.

Once I have a chance to read and reflect on the opinions in these cases, I will provide A LOT more commentary.

UPDATE: Thanks to SCOTUSblog, the opinion in Kimbrough (06-6330) is here, and here are the voting blocks:

GINSBURG, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and STEVENS, SCALIA, KENNEDY, SOUTER, and BREYER, JJ., joined. SCALIA, J., filed a concurring opinion. THOMAS, J., and ALITO, J., filed dissenting opinions.

The opinion in Gall (06-7949) is here, and it has similar voting blocks:

STEVENS, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and SCALIA, KENNEDY, SOUTER, GINSBURG, and BREYER, JJ., joined. SCALIA, J., and SOUTER, J., filed concurring opinions. THOMAS, J., and ALITO, J., filed dissenting opinions.