Respondents and Amici File Reponses to Petitions in Fanfan & Booker before the Supreme Court

As reported at SCOTUSBlog here, various filings were made by respondents in Fanfan and Booker regarding the petition for cert. before judgment to the First Circuit in Fanfan, and the petition for cert. to the Seventh Circuit in Booker.

Also, the NACDL and NAFD filed an amici brief before the Court, most interesting for requesting that the Court reframe the questions presented in the Solicitor General's petitions in Fanfan and Booker, as well as recommending that the Court not grant cert. before judgment in Fanfan, but that it, instead, grant cert. in Pineiro (5th Cir.) (holding Blakely inapplicable to federal sentencing guidelines) or Bijou (4th Cir.) (involving an enhancement based essentially on "acquitted conduct" decided before Blakely).

In Fanfan respondent opposes the granting of cert. before judgment, as well as arguing that the case is not a proper vehicle for review of the Blakely issues, because it involves other issues that the Court would have to deal with before reaching the Blakely issues. More at the Puerto Rico Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers blog here. You can get the links to the various briefs at the PRACDL blog, or for more reading and the links, see Sentencing Law and Policy here. In reviewing the briefs, I could not help but grasp how important some web blogs and sites have become to this rapidly moving Blakely issue, that citations were often to links at USSGuide.com and Sentencing Law and Policy.