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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

Did the Dems win the fight against DeSantis regarding the Florida Supreme Court?

Posted on September 15, 2020
Well, the challenge was successful and Renatha Francis is out. The Governor appointed Jamie Grosshans, 41, in her place. Grosshams was appointed to the county bench when she was 38. Of the choices DeSantis had from the JNC list, many said that Grosshans was the most right wing and her reputation is certainly more conservative than Francis...

Phase 2 in Miami-Dade

Posted on September 14, 2020
Things are starting to reopen. We even had sports this weekend. School may reopen before October 5. And the rumors are flying around that Chief Judge Moore may update his order on grand juries to allow them to reopen before the Jan 2021 date...

Florida Supreme Court says Gov. DeSantis must appoint new Justice by Monday (UPDATED)

Posted on September 11, 2020
Read the unanimous opinion here.UPDATE -- while DeSantis lost this battle, he won a big one in the en banc 11th Circuit. William Pryor writes the majority opinion backing DeSantis' position that felons cannot vote until they have paid all court costs, fees, etc...

Barbara Lagoa makes Trump?s short list for SCOTUS

Posted on September 09, 2020
You can watch Trump?s press conference here where he lists all of the candidates here, including our very own Barbara Lagoa. The other Florida short-lister is Carlos Muniz on the Florida Supreme Court.

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Update to Florida Supreme Court Justice controversy by Kyle S. Roberts

Posted on September 09, 2020
Here's a further update to Kyle S. Robert's post on the Florida Supreme Court:On September 8, 2020, the Florida Supreme Court denied Thompson?s motion for rehearing, but granted her motion for leave to amend the Emergency Petition for Writ of Quo Warranto and Writ of Mandamus...

Curtis Flowers won't be retried

Posted on September 07, 2020
It would have been his 7th -- SEVENTH! -- trial. The AP covers the decision here:A Mississippi man freed last year after 22 years in prison will not be tried a seventh time in a quadruple murder case, a judge ruled Friday after prosecutors told him they no longer had any credible witnesses...

Michael Sherwin is a good example of a U.S. Attorney with principles

Posted on September 03, 2020
Check out this Washington Post article here. Sherwin is being criticized by both the left and the right. But he's just trying to do the right thing by not bringing charges where there is no evidence. Good for Sherwin!Federal prosecutors on Tuesday accused D...

I?m no fan of Steve Bannon.

Posted on September 01, 2020
But the way DOJ is treating him and his co-defendants in the press isn?t right. I call it chutzpah in this piece in the Hill:Chutzpah is defined as ?shameless audacity.? In his book of the same name, Alan Dershowitz said the concept is more easily demonstrated than defined...

GUEST POST BY KYLE S. ROBERTS (UPDATED)

Posted on August 31, 2020
Florida Supreme Court Said Governor DeSantis Exceeded His Authority In Appointing Judge Renatha Francis, But Held Petitioner Thompson To The Remedy She Requested And Denied The PetitionBy Kyle S. RobertsThe August 27th Opinion denied Representative Geraldine F...

Media matters

Posted on August 31, 2020
There's been a ton of publicity about the Steve Bannon arrest and charges. The prosecution has issued its press releases and even held a press conference. DOJ is a media machine these days. It wasn't always like that. But heaven-forbid that a defendant try to respond to the press...

?The Department of Justice has been casting a wide net charging these SBA loan fraud cases, and I look forward to discovering if this is an example of that net having been cast too wide.?

Posted on August 27, 2020
That was Bradley Horenstein discussing his new COVID-19 case. His client is accused of getting a relief loan for a farm in Miami... according to the feds, no farm. From the Herald:As the coronavirus spread havoc in South Florida, prosecutors say Latoya Stanley and Johnny Philus hauled in $1 million in federal relief loans while claiming they were struggling to operate a beauty supply store, an auto leasing business and a couple of farms in North Miami...

Which circuit is the worst on qualified immunity?

Posted on August 25, 2020
You may have thought it was the 11th... but it?s the 5th actually. We aren?t far behind, according to this interesting Reuters report. And the best is the 9th Circuit. But the disparities is a good reason to abolish the doctrine altogether...

Lori Loughlin gets two months...

Posted on August 23, 2020
... which is two months too long. First, she was bullied into pleading guilty.Second, the government appears to have committed serious misconduct.But most importantly, the sentence really doesn't serve any legitimate purpose. I wrote about the same issue in the two-week Felicity Huffman sentence here...

Reading Administrative Orders on Friday Afternoon

Posted on April 01, 2011
Yes, the exciting life of a federal blogger. (Rumpole, on the other hand, is posting April Fools jokes).Well, I'm sure you've been waiting on the edge of your seats to find out about the new magistrate pairings. Here they are!And Judge Torres is up for re-appointment...

Quick hits

Posted on March 31, 2011
1. SFL covers Minkow. So does Curt Anderson. 2. The border search exception applies to laptops, even if they take it to a facility 170 miles away. 3. No 11th Circuit en banc review for the health care case. 4. The Bronx Zoo Cobra was caught. 5. Well, if Dr...

Former U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta writes letter about Jeffrey Epstein deal and Roy Black responds

Posted on March 30, 2011
Wow, this is getting ugly. The Daily Beast broke the story here. And one of Epstein's lawyers, Roy Black, has responded to Acosta's letter (page 1, and page 2, and page 3 here) in the Palm Beach Daily News. Both letters are truly remarkable, and I've never seen anything like it...

Justice Scalia gets ticket in car accident

Posted on March 30, 2011
Apparently he was following a little too closely to the car in front of him: The accident happened just before 9 a.m. on what was to be a big day for the jurist: The nation?s highest court was hearing arguments in the massive Wal-Mart gender discrimination case...

Unbelievable

Posted on March 29, 2011
5-4 per Justice Thomas in Connick v. Thompson: Held: A district attorney?s office may not be held liable under �1983 for failure to train its prosecutors based on a single Brady violation. One reason given is that lawyers learn enough about Brady from law school and the bar exam...

Only in Miami

Posted on March 29, 2011
I just love these only in Miami stories about the Jose Canseco having his twin brother Ozzie standing in for him at a celebrity fight and about Luke Campbell running for mayor. If you want to stick to the regular federal news, well then here's a story for you about why it's so difficult to get a cellphone into the courthouse.

Ft. Lauderale federal courthouse described as "worst" by "federal officials"

Posted on March 28, 2011
The Sun-Sentinel has the story of renewed plans to build a new federal courthouse in Broward: Broward County could get two new courthouses on the New River in downtown Fort Lauderdale instead of just one ? a potential government investment of at least $500 million...

Pictures from Friday's event

Posted on March 27, 2011
SFL posted some of my amateur cell phone pictures over at his blog, but Judge Scott Silverman took some great shots: Okay, Judge Silverman didn't take the Paris Hilton/Lindsay Lohan picture, but both panels discussed them. See what you missed.

Friday afternoon quick hits

Posted on March 25, 2011
1. The symposium was really interesting, especially Rumpole and SFL trying to partipicate by speaker phone and Twitter.2. Another book on legal writing. I disagree with Russ Guberman's point here:Has legal writing changed over the years? And if so, for the better or for the worse?I hate to mythologize the past, but legal writing is changing for the worse...

Historical Society Centennial Symposium

Posted on March 24, 2011
Tim Ravich and Robert Kuntz are putting on a symposium tomorrow titled: "The Vital, Tempestuous and Changing Relationship Between the Court and Media." It's in Courtroom 4-2 of the Miami-Dade County Courthouse, starting at 8:30 -- 12:15. Speakers include Roy Black, John Hogan, Kendall Coffee, Brian Tannebaum, Robert Levenson, Joe Serota, Mark Seigan, Rumpole, SFL, Eddie Dominguez, and yours truly...

Talented economic crimes prosecutors leaving USAO

Posted on March 22, 2011
Three of them that I know about:Jeffrey Neiman (pictured), who is one of the leading tax prosecutors in the country, and was part of the UBS team, is starting his own firm and will be sharing space with Fred Hadaad in Broward.Ryan Stumphauzer, who is the Deputy Chief of Economic Crimes and the Health Care Fraud Coordinator, and Ryan O'Quinn, who was Senior Counsel at the SEC and is now a securities prosecutor, are forming a partnership and will be practicing in Miami...

Monday morning

Posted on March 21, 2011
Hope everyone enjoyed their spring break. It's back to work, and here's what's up:1. Barry Bonds' trial starts today. Apparently, jail isn't at stake, but his legacy is: a jury will be asked to decide whether baseball's home run king set his historic mark while using a long list of banned drugs...

"Why don?t we just abolish the exclusionary rule? That would be really simple. Whatever evidence tends to prove the truth comes in.?

Posted on March 21, 2011
Uh-oh. That was Justice Scalia this morning in Davis v. United States:JUSTICE SCALIA: Actually, why don't we just abolish the exclusionary rule? That would be really simple. Whatever evidence tends to prove the truth comes in. That would be a very simple system if we're looking for just simplicity, wouldn't it?MR...

March Madness

Posted on March 17, 2011
Today shows why this is the best week of the year in sports. What great games...Your news for the day:1. Welcome to the blogosphere Roy Black at Black's Law. He'll be discussing trial practice -- he already has posted on cross-examination. I can attest to Roy's folder method...

UM Law drops in rankings form 60 to 77

Posted on March 16, 2011
ABT has all the gory details.Some other quick hits:SFL has a really entertaining post discussing the FBA luncheon from last week.Congrats to Peter Raben for this victory.Thank goodness for the 9th Circuit. The drugs used to execute defendants in Georgia may have been illegally imported...

Posner vs. Ginsburg

Posted on March 15, 2011
Oh, this one ought to be good. Via the WSJ, seems like Judge Richard Posner doesn't like the way Supreme Court Justices are behaving:He says mock trials of fictitious characters don?t ?contribute to anyone?s enlightenment.? For Judge Posner, the hobby symptomizes the broader ills of contemporary ?celebrity culture...

The best trial lawyers are good poker players

Posted on March 14, 2011
At least that's what I've been told. Well, if that's true, naybe soon we will have some trial bots:Poker bots are not new, but until recently they were not very good. Humans were better at the nuances of the game ? at bluffing, for instance ? and could routinely beat the machines...

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