Supreme Court Monday

In its final sitting of 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down 11 decisions, but failed to consider anxiously awaited rulings on the constitutionality of the federal sentencing guidelines.
"At the summertime urging of the solicitor general," a Law.com article relates, "the Court had expedited the handling of United States v. Booker and United States v. Fanfan to remedy the 'disarray' of the federal sentencing system in the wake of last June's Blakely v. Washington ruling, which struck down a state sentencing law similar to the federal guidelines. The Court heard arguments in the cases on the first day of its term in October, and many had expected decisions by November, but adjournment now means that the earliest a ruling could now come is Jan. 11, 2005.

The Court did decide that police "have the authority to arrest suspects on charges that later fall apart as long as they had a second, valid reason for the detention." It also refused to clarify "when police could use deadly force to stop fleeing criminal suspects, but did say a lower court got it wrong in allowing a lawsuit against a police officer in the state of Washington who shot a burglary suspect."