From the Washington Post Tuesday:

Sentencing Guidelines for Crack Cocaine Offenses to Be Made Retroactive

"The U.S. Sentencing Commission voted today to make retroactive its new federal sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine offenses, raising hopes for reduced prison terms among thousands of mostly black federal inmates and defying stiff opposition from the Bush administration" (full story here).

Stack that on top of the Supreme Court news from Monday (again via the Post):

Justices Reinforce Leeway on Sentences:
Cocaine Disparity At Heart of 1 Case


"The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that federal judges are not bound by federal guidelines calling for tougher penalties for those who sell crack rather than powder cocaine, giving them broad discretion in drug and other criminal cases" (full story here).

Note: This was a 7-2 ruling in which Justices Scalia and Roberts sided with the petitioner.

This is a huge week for the 100:1 crew (see previous post here for background), who took quite a beating getting to the Supreme Court. Special kudos to Mark Osler, who argued several of those cases at the circuit court level, filed an amicus brief on behalf of the petitioner on this case, and attended the Supreme Court hearing this fall. His post-ruling expert analysis on SCOTUSblog and some celebratory pictures of a severed Goliath head and an exultant Chewbacca on his blog.

Well done. Congratulations. This is a story of perseverance in the pursuit of a righteous cause.

The title of this post is borrowed from James Brewer Stewart's 1976 monograph about the American abolitionists of the nineteenth century, Holy Warriors.

Mark Osler, a professor of law at Baylor Law School, has several causes about which he is passionate. The other night at the Law School, I attended a Baylor Federalist Society-sponsored debate concerning "Faith and the Law," focused on the death penalty.

The Question: Is the Death Penalty compatible with Christianity?

Professor Osler took the negative.

During the course of the program it suddenly occurred to me that the modern proponents of abolishing the death penalty, especially those like Osler who are motivated by their particular Christian worldview, have much in common with the storied abolitionists of old.

More on that comparison in the days to come.