Hurricane Irene brought peace (eirene) of a sort to Richmond. Without power, there is only so much that one can do. And many in Richmond have been, and remain, without power.
The Fourth Circuit has not done much this week. Until today, there were no opinions in argued cases. The one opinion issued today breaking this week’s argued-case silence is United States v. Martin.The decision affirms an illegal sentence under plain-error review. One suspects there may be more to the case than revealed in the relatively spare unpublished per curiam opinion released today. The case was argued on December 10, 2010, before a panel consisting of Justice O’Connor, Chief Judge Traxler, and Judge Keenan. It is unusual for an opinion to take this long to be issued.
Prof. Walsh,
In those types of situations, what would you attribute to the delay? Merely wrangling over the verbiage of the opinion?
Cagle — Good question. I probably should have put more about this in the post. The delay between argument and decision in this case was probably due to two factors. First, the parties and the panel were waiting on the Supreme Court’s decision in Tapia. That decision came out in mid-June. Second, it’s the summer. The panel needed to take the case off the shelf where it was placed pending the decision in Tapia, and then apply that decision to the facts as understood in light of the briefing and the December argument. That takes a little more time, particularly when not all of the judges on the panel sit on the Fourth Circuit.