Continuing our coverage of legal bloggers that appear in judicial opinions, we are pleased to report that Douglas Berman's Sentencing Law and Policy has been footnoted in two recent opinions: 1) The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals' US v. Penaranda, footnote 9; and 2) The Federal District Court in Utah's US v. Croxford, footnote 33.

Douglas Berman, a law professor at Ohio State University, posts an abundance of information concerning the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision Blakley v. Washington. In Blakley, the Court held that where the facts supporting the defendant's exceptionally harsh criminal sentence were neither admitted by the defendant, nor found by a jury, the sentence violated defendant's Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury. To say that the Blakley decision has created a big ripple in Criminal Law practice is an understatement.

Sentencing Law and Policy blog is at the center of this whirlwind issue, and it's clear from the posts that Berman is deeply immersed in his subject matter. Detailed coverage of a highly specialized area, such as Criminal Sentencing, is an example how blogging can outshine the traditional media. We hope to promote more of this kind of blogging in the future.

Thanks to Robert Brownstone of Fenwick & West for tipping us to the July 19th WSJ article, "Law Professor's Web Log Is Jurists' Must-Read," by Laurie Cohen.

On a related note: Aggregating judicial mentions of blogging is core to the Blogbook's "mission," and we encourage all legal bloggers to email us with your good news.