In praise of Judge Stephanos Bibas ... for his copious sentencing scholarship

I could not resist blogging today about the latest jurist to be thrust into the national spotlight by the Trump campaign's quixotic quest to challenge election outcomes despite having "neither" "specific allegations" or "proof."   The words in quotes in that last sentence come from the first paragraph in this Third Circuit panel opinion authored by Judge Stephanos Bibas, whose name should be familiar to many sentencing fans.  Before being appointed to the Third Circuit by Prez Trump, Judge Bibas had been Professor Bibas for nearly two decades, and he wrote thoughtfully and provocatively on a range of criminal justice and sentencing topics. 

I have long had a particular affinity for Prof Bibas not only because of his long history as a sentencing scholar, but also because we worked together on a Supreme Court case in which he was an appointed amicus, and we co-authored one of my favorite articles about Blakely and Booker jurisprudence, Making Sentencing Sensible.  More than a decade ago, Judge Bibas and I also co-authored an essay about capital sentencing, Engaging Capital Emotions, that also served as a basis for a short book entry under the title The Heart Has its Value: The Death Penalty's Justifiable Persistence.

Long-time blog readers may recall that Judge Bibas did a stint of guest-blogging in this space in conjunction with the release of his 2012 book, The Machinery of Criminal Justice.  All of his posts are linked under the category tab, Guest blogging by Professor Stephanos Bibas, and his book and postings are still quite timely.  So, too, are so many of his law review articles about sentencing and criminal procedure.  Drawing from this SSRN listing of more than 50 pieces authored by Judge Bibas, I will link to a half-dozen classics going back two decades that are especially worthy of a (re-)read by anyone in a Bibas state of mind this weekend:

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