The Daily Press of Hampton Roads, Virginia, had an article yesterday about US v. Hammoud, which is the case the Fourth Circuit has chosen to be its en banc test case for Blakely and the Sentencing Guidelines. Going solely on my gut feeling, the facts don't present a great case for our side:
The appeals court in Richmond will consider the impact of Blakely in the case of Mohamad Hammoud, who was sentenced to 155 years in prison after being the first person convicted under a federal law that bars aid to terrorist groups. Hammoud led a North Carolina cigarette-smuggling ring that funneled money to the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah.
While a 155 year sentence for smuggling smokes does sound like the sort of "absurd" result Scalia warned against in Blakely, I have a hard time seeing the Fourth giving the benefit of the doubt to an alleged financier of terrorism. I would love to be proven wrong, tho'.
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