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A sentencing aside amidst all the SCOTUS speculation

By Douglas A. Berman

Today's above-the-fold front-page article in the New York Times is all about President Obama's legal past as he prepares to make a pick for the Supreme Court's future.  This article, which is headlined "As a Professor, a Pragmatist About the Supreme Court," includes this notable aside noting how President Obama addressed sentencing issues back when he was Professor Obama: Former students say that Mr. Obama does not particularly prize consistency or broad principle.... [W]hen it came to sentencing laws, Mr. Obama led [student Adam] Bonin in a more conservative direction than the student had expected.  The primary victims of black criminals were fellow blacks ? and so minority neighborhoods had an interest in keeping sentencing laws tough, he taught...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 03, 2009 (boomark / email).