Osler's Razor

If you care a lot about federal sentencing, as I do, Doug Berman over at the Sentencing Law and Policy blog has reported some truly great news. The federal sentencing guidelines are crafted (with Congressional oversight) by the United States Sentencing Commission. The Vice Chair of that Commission has announced, at least tenatively, that the Commission will take up in the next year four very important issues, including crack cocaine sentences, the use of relevant conduct in sentencing, calculations of criminal history, and the complexity of the guidelines themselves. Some of the people on the Commission are among the best minds in the field, and this promises to be a fascinating year in the world of federal sentencing, between the Commission considering these issues, Congress slow-dancing with the idea of reform, and federal courts sorting out what the Supreme Court's Booker decision really meant.

To a guy like me, that's as juicy as a weekend of football.