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SCOTUS takes up long-running federal sentencing case from Eighth Circuit

By Douglas A. Berman

It appears that among the cert grants from the Supreme Court this morning is Pepper v. United States (docket here), which will call for a review of this Eighth Circuit opinion.  This Pepper case appears to have gone up and down the federal judicial ladder on sentencing issues for years, and it looks like Pepper might be a variation on the important Gall case from the Eighth Circuit that SCOTUS reversed a few years ago.  I will have a lot more on this important federal sentencing cert grant once I have a chance to review the particulars. UPDATE:  Because the Eighth Circuit's most recent Pepper decision implicates so many issues, it is hard to even know how significant the SCOTUS cert grant in this case could prove to be.  That said, the case seems likely to provide the newer Justices with their most direct opportunity to express views on modern post-Booker federal sentencing realities.continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on June 28, 2010 (boomark / email).