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Federal Judiciary

Southern District of Florida

News and notes on the Southern District of Florida

Post Frequency: 3.1/day

Last Entry: November 03, 2020 at 07:42:00

Not a good way to start an opinion if you are a criminal defendant

Posted on February 08, 2011
This appeal involves the reasonableness of the sentence for the robber of a post office who thrust his revolver close to the face of a postal clerk, demanded money, and shouted a racial slur and obscenities and had a history of violent criminal behavior...

My favorite (non-game) Super Bowl moments

Posted on February 07, 2011

?Notice of Appeal Rule 4(a) of Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. Request Permission to Appeal My 17 Years of Wrongful Conviction"

Posted on February 04, 2011
It's almost impossible for a criminal defendant to win in the 11th Circuit. But the pro se prisoner who filed the above pleading in the court of appeals did just that. From the opinion's intro:Luis Camejo-Rodriguez seeks relief from his 1995 guilty plea to various cocaine and firearm offenses...

Interesting post about D.C. Circuit nominee

Posted on February 04, 2011
Before Kathy Williams' confirmation hearing, the judiciary committee heard from D.C. Circuit nominee Caitlin Halligan. There's an interesting post from the BLT on how that hearing went. Here's the intro:Caitlin Halligan followed an often-used script today during her confirmation hearing for the U...

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Live blogging Kathy Williams' confirmation hearing

Posted on February 02, 2011
Coincidentally, I'm here in DC on a case and am lucky enough to be able to attend Kathy Williams' confirmation hearing, which is about to start. Below is her with Senators Nelson and Rubio.2:10 Senator Coons is introducing everyone.2:12 Senator Grassley is reading a statement...

Great events

Posted on February 01, 2011
This Thursday, February 3, from 11:30-1:30 in Courtroom 13-3, the SDFLA will be having an unveiling ceremony for a Black History Exhibit called: "Milestones: A Legal Odyssey."Later this month there will be a civil rights panel discussion and reception on February 23 from 4-6 pm in the jury room (5th floor), moderated by Professor Charles Ogletree...

John Pacenti knocks it out of the park

Posted on January 31, 2011
He's got two interesting stories in the DBR this morning:1) Lew Freeman's emails from prison and 2) the age of our district's judges.Here's a part of the Freeman article:Other reports from Freeman dispel any notion of a "Club Fed" where white collar criminals enjoy the comforts of home...

Judge Cohn sentences Larry Wilcox to probation

Posted on January 29, 2011
Whew. Jon Baker made many enemies over the years with all of his arrests, so it wouldn't have been easy in jail. From CNN:Larry Wilcox, the actor who played Officer Jon Baker on the 1970s TV show "CHiPs," was sentenced Friday to three years probation by a Florida judge for conspiracy to commit securities fraud...

Does the Constitution Cafe at the federal courthouse...

Posted on January 27, 2011
...serve unpitted or pitted olives? It's an important question. You see, if they serve unpitted olives, people may get hurt:Dennis Kucinich is suing the Longworth House Office Building cafeteria because of a sandwich.You want more? The friendly Cleveland congressman filed suit against a number of companies that supply and run the congressional eatery, because in 2008 he bit into a "sandwich wrap" of some kind and hurt his teeth on an olive pit...

"The judge wants to see you, Mark."

Posted on January 27, 2011
That's what a deputy U.S. marshal told Mark Steven Phillips when they arrested him today after 30 years on the run. According to the Miami Herald, Phillips responded: "The judge wants to see me from 30 years ago?" Jay Weaver has more:A key member of the infamous Miami-based Black Tuna Gang, the biggest U...

Does anyone use the Bluebook anymore?

Posted on January 26, 2011
Judge Posner certainly doesn't. Here's the intro to his review of the 19th edition:Nowadays the word ?hypertrophy? is used mainly to denote a class of diseases in which an organ grows to an abnormal size because of the uncontrolled growth of the cells that constitute it...

Tuesday News and Notes

Posted on January 25, 2011
1. If a criminal defense lawyer did this, we'd be locked up. For Justice Thomas, it's just a mistake.2. President Barack Obama has selected White House Deputy Counsel Donald Verrilli Jr. to serve as Solicitor General. From BLT:If confirmed by the Senate, Verrilli would fill the position now held by acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, who stepped into the job when Solicitor General Elena Kagan was nominated to the Supreme Court...

Monday morning hits

Posted on January 24, 2011
1. Who wouldn't pick Justice Kagan for jury duty? (via Washington Post)2. 9th Circuit judge Stephen Reinhardt was reversed twice last week on the same day. Ouch. (via WSJ)3. SFL writes the obit for the Miami City Club.4. "I am not a terrorist." That was Mike Tein's client at the Playstation sentencing last week...

Justice Scalia complains of an ?Alfred Hitchcock line of?jurisprudence.?

Posted on January 20, 2011
A unanimous Supreme Court (per Alito) in NASA v. Nelson upheld the government's right to conduct background checks on employees. Justice Scalia (along with Justice Thomas) concurred, saying that the Court again refused to answer the main questions presented by the case and that the minimalist strategy of the Court is bad for lower courts and others trying to figure out what the case means...

In defense of old judges

Posted on January 19, 2011
The blawgosphere is all aflutter about this Slate article criticizing life tenure for federal judges because some really old judges are making mistakes. As if young judges don't. (See the cover of the DBR today about a young Broward state judge who is defending himself before the JQC because he "made a mistake...

Justice Breyer: "And in my experience, too, people did sometimes stick things in my underwear."

Posted on January 17, 2011
Whether their jokes are humorous or not, Supreme Court Justices often get [Laughter]. Not so much when the lawyers try to make a funny. The WaPo has the story here. An excerpt:Still, nothing is more perishable than what passes for humor at the court. You really have to have been there...

?Fighting for the rights of men is not a very popular thing to do in America these days.?

Posted on January 14, 2011
Oh boy (no pun intended). Check out ?Babe?-Loving NY Lawyer Suspects Female Justices Helped Nix His Ladies Night Appeal. I'm not really sure how to describe it.Other news items:--As great as President Obama's speech was, did he make the prosecution's job in seeking the death penalty harder?--The 9th Circuit has this memorial up for Judge Roll...

Beware the bloggers

Posted on January 13, 2011
Bob Norman has this piece up today about a Broward County Commission who is afraid of bloggers. It's easy to poke fun at some of the dramatic comments she makes.But, I actually think Norman makes light of what is a more serious issue -- anonymous commenting on blogs...

Cheers to Judge Peter Palermo

Posted on January 13, 2011
I'm convinced that Judge Palermo has sipped from the Fountain of Youth. This month he completes his 40th year (!!) with the Court. He was sworn in January of 1971 and was the first magistrate judge appointed. He really is an inspiration. Check out the article below from his swearing in and a picture (below) from his swearing in...

Quick hits

Posted on January 12, 2011
1. How do you prosecute a defendant who is deaf, mute, and illiterate, including no known knowledge of sign language? They are trying.2. Kyle McEntee and Patrick Lynch are ATL's lawyers of the year. Who, you say? Read about em here.3. Justice Kagan wrote her first opinion, an 8-1 ruling for credit card companies...

11th Circuit in Atlanta is closed today

Posted on January 10, 2011
It's cold there. From the Court's website:Inclement WeatherCourt of Appeals employees should not report for duty at the Tuttle or Godbold Buildings in Atlanta on Monday, January 10, 2011, unless they are specifically directed to do so by a supervisor...

The most hated lawyer in America right now is...

Posted on January 10, 2011
... Judy Clarke, who is going to represent Jared Loughner, who is charged with murdering Chief Federal Judge John M. Roll and others, and attempting to kill Representative Giffords.She has been the most hated lawyer before, representing the Unabomber, Susan Smith, and Zacarias Moussaoui...

Judge Hurley: I would have found Joel Williams not guilty

Posted on January 07, 2011
From the Sun-Sentinel:Charged initially with a money-laundering conspiracy involving Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion, Joel Williams was sentenced Thursday to just two years of probation for filing false income tax returns.U.S. District Judge Daniel T...

Cross-sex strip searches in jail humiliating and unconstitutional?

Posted on January 06, 2011
Yes, says a 6-5 9th Circuit in this opinion. From the San Francisco Chronicle:The inmate, Charles Byrd, was in Maricopa County's minimum-security jail awaiting trial in October 2004 when officials ordered searches of everyone in his unit after a series of fights...

"Nudity itself is not per se indecent."

Posted on January 05, 2011
That was the Second Circuit, discussing Connie McDowell's scene in an NYPD epidosde. From the AP:The Federal Communications Commission cannot fine broadcasters for showing a woman's nude buttocks on a 2003 episode of "NYPD Blue," a federal court ruled Tuesday, citing its earlier decision to strike down FCC rules regarding fleeting expletives uttered on live broadcasts as unconstitutionally vague...

Efraim Diveroli gets 4 years

Posted on January 04, 2011
From the AP's Curt Anderson:A youthful arms dealer whose company once boasted a $300 million Pentagon munitions contract was sentenced Monday to four years in federal prison for trying to ship millions of rounds of prohibited Chinese-made ammunition to Afghan forces fighting alongside U...

Back to work...

Posted on January 03, 2011
Hope everyone had a nice new year. It's good to be back. A quick look at what was missed the last week:1. The Cuban Spies strike back... against their lawyers. From the Miami Herald:In his appeal, Hernandez, 45, contends that his trial attorney, Paul McKenna, mishandled his defense at a 2001 Miami federal trial by focusing so much on the shoot-down location...

Is anyone working this week?

Posted on December 27, 2010
SFL and Kosher Meatball are blogging away, and CM/ECF is alerting me to motions still being filed. But I'm having trouble motivating for the blog. So, I think I'm going to take the week off from blogging. If something exciting happens (not like denials of cert or judges not getting appointed), I'll post it...

Merry Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2010

Happy Festivus...

Posted on December 23, 2010
...for the rest of us:

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