Today's Sixth Circuit must-read on reasonableness

I'll have to read all the analysis before commenting, but How Appealing provides the basics on the latest Sixth Circuit reasoned discussion of reasonableness:

En banc Sixth Circuit issues decision addressing "reasonableness" review of criminal sentence imposed under federal Sentencing Guidelines: The court splits 9-6 over the outcome, and one of the three dissenting opinions cites U.S. District Judge Richard G. Kopf's blog-based "top ten" list.

UPDATE:  All four opinion in Vonner are amazing, and I am sort of at a loss for fitting commentary — except to say I am proud of all the judges who wrote opinions and took the time to work through all the challenges that Booker and its progeny present for lower courts.  Against this backdrop, the final paragraph of the majority opinion is especially worth spotlighting:

Since Booker, the Supreme Court has handed down three cases about appellate review of challenges to the lengths of criminal sentences and the processes for determining them. See Rita, 127 S. Ct. at 2470; Gall, 128 S. Ct. at 602; Kimbrough v. United States, 128 S. Ct. 558, 576 (2007). One theme runs through all three cases: Booker empowered district courts, not appellate courts and not the Sentencing Commission.  Talk of presumptions, plain error and procedural and substantive rules of review means nothing if it does not account for the central reality that Booker breathes life into the authority of district court judges to engage in individualized sentencing within reason in applying the § 3553(a) factors to the criminal defendants that come before them. If there is a pattern that emerges from Rita, Gall and Kimbrough, it is that the district court judges were vindicated in all three cases, and a court of appeals was affirmed just once — and that of course was when it deferred to the on-the-scene judgment of the district court.  Our affirmance in today’s case respects the central lesson from these decisions — that district courts have considerable discretion in this area and thus deserve the benefit of the doubt when we review their sentences and the reasons given for them.