BU Law Prof, Former Students, Win Supreme Court Victory
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BU Law Prof, Former Students, Win Supreme Court Victory
A Baylor law professor and two former students have won a U.S. Supreme Court victory in a case that involved federal cocaine sentencing guidelines.
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WACO (January 22, 2009)—Baylor University Law professor Mark Osler and two of his former students won a U.S. Supreme Court victory Wednesday in a case involving federal cocaine sentencing guidelines.

Osler and former students Dustin Benham, an attorney with the Brown Law Firm in Dallas, and Matthew Acosta, who works as a judicial clerk, began working on the case three years ago.

At issue in the case was the decision of a federal judge not to follow sentencing guidelines that required that defendants who are convicted of selling crack cocaine receive much stiffer sentences that defendants convicted of selling cocaine in powder form.

The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the sentence and ruled that the guidelines could not be rejected categorically.

But Osler and his former students argued that federal judges do have the latitude to reject the guidelines if they disagree with them for policy reasons and five of the nine justices on the high court accepted the argument.

In a dissenting opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts called the reversal of the 8th Circuit ruling “bitter medicine.”

“I was especially glad that two of our (former) students were able to play such a significant role in changing the law in an important way,” Osler said.

Read The U.S. Supreme Court Decision

Baylor Web Site

Latest Comments

Posted by: Bob Location: here on Jan 23, 2009 at 02:07 PM

How in the world is this "unchristian". YOu need to pull your head out and smell th coffee. If these men were out and burglarizing your house you probably would have a different attitude. Think before you speak, or type.
Posted by: Someone Location: Near-Here on Jan 23, 2009 at 12:03 PM

Now we have some Crack-Head Lawyer from Baylor trying to change the Law over the wording???????
Posted by: grandma Susie Location: Lampasas on Jan 23, 2009 at 10:25 AM

Shame on Baylor for graduating and employing people with Un-Chritian attitudes.
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