Supreme Court to tackle sentencing disparities

Among the other interesting cases on the U.S. Supreme Court docket this term is one dealing with the sentencing disparities between crack and powdered cocaine. While the nuances of the case are much more juicy, and academically and legally chock full of vitamins, the gist of this case is that it will shed an entirely new perspective on some of these sentences. For anyone who has worked in the court system, you are well aware of the guidelines and minimum mandatories and, as the Supreme Court (I predict) will point out, how certain drug crimes appear to have a disparate impact on insular minorities. Minimally (one would hope), it's going to give the judges at sentencing some of their flexibility back. I guess we'll have to wait a few months to figure out exactly how it comes down, but it certainly should give some appellate attorneys some new fodder to play with.

And for those of us in the appellate system, it should translate into many more hours of Westlaw research. So much fun...

And on a bar related note, one of my friends who took Pennsylvania will get the results today. A couple of my friends took and passed Delaware. Virginia is rumored to release as early as today or as late as next week. Maybe Cali and NY will join the rest of the country and get the results out before the end of the month. As soon as I get some MBE information from these successful bar passers, I will pass it along.

Tags: supreme court powdered cocaine case, powdered crack cocaine sentencing disparities