With SCOTUS nominee now on path to confirmation, time to fret again about the lack of USSC nominees from Prez Biden

As we approach a full 15 months into the Biden Administration, I must yet again return to expressing my frustration that there has not yet been any nominations to the US Sentencing Commission.  As I have noted in a number of prior posts (some linked below), due to a lack of Sentencing Commissioners, the USSC has not been fully functional for the better part of five years, and the USSC has not had complete set of commissioners in place now for nearly a decade.  The USSC staff continues to produce lots of useful research and reports, but the FIRST STEP Act's passage in December 2018 makes it particularly problematic for the USSC to have been completely non-functional for now three+ years since that law's enactment.

Though I harped on this front a lot last year, I did not complain too much recently about the persistent lack of nominees while the Biden Administration was selecting and seeking the confirmation of a replacement for US Supreme Court Justice Breyer.  But, after yesterday's developments (news here), it seem quite clear that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will be confirmed to replace Justice Breyer.  So, with this SCOTUS transition now seemingly settled, I will return to full-time fretting about the lack of USSC nominees from Prez Biden.

I have heard buzz from a variety of sources leading me to believe a slate of nominations could be imminent.  These nominations cannot come soon enough, especially given that already three month have passed since Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justice Barrett, issued a statement respecting the denial expressing "hope in the near future the Commission will be able to resume its important function in our criminal justice system."  As all my posts below detail, I have shared this hope, so far still unfulfilled, for quite some time.

One of many reasons sentencing fans should now hope for imminent nominations for the US Sentencing Commission is the inherently uncertain (and political) nature of the confirmation process.  I am hopeful that, because nominations to the USSC have to be bipartisan, there will be Senators from both parties eager to move the eventual nominees through the confirmation process efficiently.  But I am perhaps naive to believe that good government functioning could come before possible political opportunism in this setting (especially during an election year).  Moreover, even if the confirmation process goes quickly and smoothly, the process is still likely to take months, while more than a thousand federal defendants are getting sentenced in federal courts every week. 

A few of many prior related posts:

• Any guesses for when we might again have a fully functioning US Sentencing Commission? 
• New commentary calling for Prez Biden to revive the US Sentencing Commission
• Might we be getting closer to (needed) new nominees for the "frozen" US Sentencing Commission? 
• Getting antsy for US Sentencing Commission appointments after another slate of impressive judicial nominees from Prez Biden
• Timely reminder of US Sentencing Commission's decarceral potential ... when it is functional 
• When might we expect appointments to a new — a truly new — US Sentencing Commission? 
• When might we expect advocacy groups to push Prez Biden make needed appointments to the US Sentencing Commission? 
• Should I give up hoping Prez Biden will soon make long needed nominations to US Sentencing Commission? 
• Bipartisan call from members of Congress for Prez Biden to make US Sentencing Commission nominations 
• Spotlighting guideline circuit split, two Justices express "hope" US Commission will be back "in near future"