EXTRA: Well, that didn't take long

A U.S. Court of Appeals panel based in Chicago officially upheld the 14-year prison sentence that former Gov. Rod Blagojevich is serving. This ruling comes merely three days after attorneys for Blagojevich argued that the trial judge didn't take into account all the letters written by prison inmates who have encountered the former governor and say he has been a model inmate.

ZAGEL: His Blagojevich ruling upheld (again)

It's not the least bit surprising the appeals court would take such an attitude -- not wanting to overturn U.S. District Judge James Zagel unless he did something that was a blatant legal screw-up.

BUT THIS WAS a quick ruling. The argument was made Tuesday, and the written legal brief rejecting Milorod came out Friday morning. Not even the appearance of any real deliberation. It reminds me of when the Illinois Supreme Court considered the case of "Baby Richard," a child whose adoption was challenged by his father even though the mother willingly gave the boy up. It took that court four hours to come back with a ruling in the father's favor.

Blagojevich's attorneys can now take their case to the Supreme Court of the United States, although I can't envision that in this Age of Trump they'd be terribly sympathetic. The only real question is, 'How quickly will they refuse to even hear arguments?'

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