Osler's Razor

I'm back in DC for the incredible Supreme Court doubleheader in Gall and Kimbrough on Tuesday. For those of you who don't fanatically follow the Court's sentencing jurisprudence, Gall addresses the question of whether a large variance from the sentencing guidelines requires extraordinary circumstances, and Kimbrough addresses whether a sentencing judge can vary from the guideline's 100:1 ratio between powder and crack cocaine simply because she disagrees with it. I'm personally invested in the latter question, since I personally lost the issue in five circuits and now I'm hoping for redemption.

Two of my partners in writing the Kimbrough brief for the federal defenders, Matt Acosta and Dustin Benham, arrive tomorrow. The plan is to go to the arguments, then have lunch at Kinkead's with IPLawGuy, Ron Fournier, and Rick Schmitt, who is the D.C. political writer for the L.A. Times. After that, we are going to meet with Judge Sessions for a bit to talk about what is up at Baylor Law.

For now, though, I am relaxing at the home of IPLawGuy (pictured here), enjoying a very nice evening.