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Why the Second Circuit's Dorvee reasonableness ruling could (and should) be so significant

By Douglas A. Berman

The New York Law Journal has this new piece, headlined "2nd Circuit Faults Pornography Enhancements, Vacates Sentence," which reports on the significant Dorvee reasonableness ruling from earlier this week (basics here).  Because it only covers the basis, this NLYJ piece does not give a full sense of why the Dorvee ruling could be so significant.  I will try to provide a brief account in this post. In the five years since Booker, circuit court have through their reasonableness rulings essentially turned the guideline range into what might be called a sentencing "safe harbor."  Though circuits have said only that within-guideline sentences will be presumed reasonable (and a few circuits have even resisted this formal presumption), for all practical purposes district judges know that decisions to impose within-guideline sentences will never be found substantively unreasonable...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 14, 2010 (boomark / email).