Supreme Court hears arguments on prison sentences, patents

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website, JURIST news archive] heard oral arguments [day call, PDF; merit briefs] Monday in Tapia v. United States [oral arguments transcript, PDF] to determine whether a district court may impose a longer prison sentence on a defendant to promote rehabilitation. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held [opinion, PDF] that the US District Court for the Southern District of California made no error when basing Alejandra Tapia’s sentence on speculation that…