The Supreme Court today ruled against Percy Dillon in his challenge to to his sentence for crack cocaine. Details of the case are here.

[T]he issue is whether the two level reduction in federal sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine implemented a few years ago allows judges, when implementing the reduction, to conduct a complete resentencing.

Many defendants were sentenced to huge terms of imprisonment for crack when the guidelines were mandatory. Since Booker in 2005, they have become discretionary. So when a defendant files a motion to have his or her sentence reduced under the guideline amendment, shouldn't the Judge be allowed to resentence under current law, treating the guidelines as advisory only? Put another way, shouldn't Booker be followed for sentencing modification decisions?

The Supreme Court says "No." The opinion, written by Justice Sotomayor, is here.

The Supreme Court ruled today an employer can access and read an employee's text messages. The opinion is here.

The court said while doing so was a search, it was a reasonable one conducted for a legitimate work-related purpose.

In its first ruling on the rights of employees who send messages on the job, the Supreme Court rejected a broad right of privacy for workers Thursday and said supervisors may read through an employee's text messages if they suspect work rules are being violated.

Argentina has already scored against South Korea, Greece faces Nigeria and France plays Mexico in a potential knockout game.

I like Greece and France.

Open Thread.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission has published the results of a survey of more than 600 federal judges on sentencing laws.

Marcia Coyle at the National Law Journal reports on the findings.

The 639 judges who responded had sentenced 116,183 offenders, or 79 percent of those sentenced during fiscal 2008 and 2009.

Sixty-two percent of the judges said the mandatory minimums that they were required to impose were too high, particularly for crack cocaine (76 percent), receipt of child pornography (71 percent) and marijuana (54 percent). However, strong majorities believed the sentencing guideline ranges for most federal offenses were appropriate, with the exception again of those for crack cocaine, marijuana, and the possession and receipt of child pornography, which they said were too high.

Also, 75 percent of the judges preferred the current system of advisory sentencing guidelines over mandatory ones. And 68 percent said "victims should not have the opportunity to comment on the pre-sentence report before sentencing." I agree.

BP has to put aside $20 billion, but what happens if there are criminal charges? The New York Times examines that possibility.

An upstate New York terrorism case may set the standard for entrapment in such cases. A judge has continued the jury trial of four defendants but the matter is far from settled:

Did a shadowy informant encourage the men to plot mass murder, or did he go too far and manufacture a plan for mayhem?

The judge, Colleen McMahon, excused potential jurors on Monday and criticized the prosecutors for being late in giving the defense an investigator’s report suggesting that the men — a group of ex-convicts and drug offenders — were incapable of carrying out a complex attack without the informer, a fast-talker who was on the government payroll.

Apple has joined AT&T in stopping pre-sales of the iPhone. With 600,000 ordered in one day, it's afraid it won't be able to meet the demand.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Judge Carlos Morales Cordova of the 4th Criminal Court in Lima, who is conducting the inquiry into the charges of murder and simple theft filed against Joran Van der Sloot, has scheduled an interrogation of Joran at Miguel Castro Castro Prison for 10:00 am Monday Morning. [Google translation here. Another version is here, translation here.)

The press release in Spanish is here and the Google Translated version here.

Judge Cordova is also requesting psychiatric and other expert evaluations, and the autopsy findings, to assist him in deciding whether Joran should stand trial on these charges. He also plans to schedule a reconstruction of the crime scene and will interrogate the three taxi drivers charged with failing to report the crime.

iPhone lovers had a bad day yesterday trying to pre-order the iPhone 4. Especially on AT&T's website where security was breached. Lack of adequate testing of its pre-order system may be the cause.

After resorting to pen and paper orders, today AT&T announced it was suspending online pre-orders. Apple's website had problems too. And it has now pushed back delivery date to July 2.

For Applephobes, don't despair. A new Droid phone is due June 23 -- Verizon and Motorola will have it.

Three games again today - Honduras v. Chile, Spain v. Switzerland and South Africa v. Uruguay.

All eyes on Spain, the tournament favorite,

If it becomes possible, I'll write some actual posts on the World Cup today. My jinxing picks - Chile, Spain and Uruguay.

Greenway University is getting its own Denver campus. The medical marijuana school has been approved by Colorado's Board of Higher Education. It will be the first state licensed marijuana school in the country. It teaches students "how to grow, sell and distribute medical marijuana."

Approximately 1,000 students have attended Greenway University in since it started satellite classes in downtown Denver last year. It is expanding so fast it needs a permanent campus and eight full-time instructors.

"We've got an extra botanist, geneticist, we really have some skilled and talented master growers, and all of our growers have a minimum of five years experience and grow for thousands of patients," Escamilla said.

Marijuana is not allowed in the classrooms....for now.

The U.S. spent more than $5 billion to fight coca production in Colombia over the past decade. The result: Growers have ramped up production in Peru.

When antinarcotics forces succeed in one place — as they recently have in Colombia, which has received more than $5 billion in American aid this decade — cultivation shifts to other corners of the Andes.

Eradication efforts in Peru and Bolivia in the 90's resulted in a shift by growers to Colombia. Now that efforts in Colombia have had success, growers have just moved back to Peru. That's the problem with a supply-oriented policy.

“Washington’s policy of supply-oriented intervention inevitably improves the efficiencies and entrepreneurial skills of traffickers,” said Paul Gootenberg, who wrote the book “Andean Cocaine.”

[More...]

Open Thread.

El Commercio and Peru 21 are reporting that Joran Van der Sloot is getting a new attorney -- Cesar Nakasaki, attorney for former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori. Nakasaki says he cannot confirm the information.

Joran also has a judge, Carlos Morales Cordova, of the Fourth Circuit Court for Prison Inmates. He has received the complaint against him, charging simple murder and theft. Reportedly, Joran will go to court on Friday for his first appearance. [More...]