Southern District of Florida: Federal Judiciary

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Federal Judiciary Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

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

This and that

Posted on May 13, 2009
1. Mr. Quotable Mike Tein is in the NY Times today, discussing the Liberty City verdict: ?If you sledgehammer the square peg three times, eventually you?re going to blast it into the round hole. This isn?t a terrorism case; it?s an overcharged gang case...

Five of six convicted in Liberty City 6 case

Posted on May 12, 2009
Naudimar Herrera was acquitted. The rest, including lead defendant Narseal Batiste, were convicted. Initial Herald article here.UPDATE (4:24pm): South Florida Lawyers has a funny post on the verdict. The Sun-Sentinel covers the case here. And the AP is also covering the case...

Should prosecutors hire jury consultants?

Posted on May 11, 2009
Michael Froomkin, blogging at Discourse, raises the very interesting question here. From his post:If the US Attorney?s office uses jury consultants to tell them how to select a prosecution-friendly jury, that would seem to me to be not just unsavory, but to raise some due process and right to jury trial issues...

FBA lunch this Wednesday

Posted on May 11, 2009
Judge John Gleeson is speaking at the Federal Bar Luncheon this Wednesday at the Banker's Club at 11:45. Please RSVP to Celeste Higgins at Celeste_Higgins@fd.orgGleeson is a District Judge in the Eastern District of New York, and was a former federal prosecutor -- the same John Gleeson that prosecuted John Gotti...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Back from the West Coast

Posted on May 10, 2009
It was a fun week in San Francisco (I can't believe I missed the Father Cuti� drama)...I see the blog was in good hands while I was away. Rick was great and we hope to have him back on a regular basis.Just a couple of quick hits before we get going for the week:-- The Liberty City 6 jury (the latest version of it) will continue deliberating this week...

Let's all get together for some legal research

Posted on May 08, 2009
Judge Gold set an evidentiary hearing for July 13th to sort out whether treaties or Swiss law prevent UBS from divulging account holder names to the IRS, reports the DBR. (The link is for subscribers only.) According to the article by John Pacenti, Gold ordered the Attorney General to explain by June 30th whether the IRS position is correct...

Game on

Posted on May 08, 2009
Dear Curt, David, and Willie?I'm thinking about applying for that U.S. Attorney gig. I wanted you guys to hear it from me.

D.O.M. canned me

Posted on May 08, 2009
Honestly, I don't know how D.O.M. does this and runs a practice. It's like being Dick Vitale and Coach K for the same game. Anyway, a week of wearing just one hat was nearly more than he could take. And this morning's little joke certainly didn't help...

Money is no object

Posted on May 07, 2009
I was getting a little desperate for something on the Liberty City 6 trial. Jay Weaver has been redeployed to the Herald's team on the scandal over Father Television's day at the beach. Fortunately, Vanessa Blum came through with something on theme for the SDFla Blog...

The birds and the Indians

Posted on May 06, 2009
It turns out D.O.M. reads the comments. I know, I know. I couldn't believe it either. He says to me, "You need to write about civil cases. And someone said you're posting too much. Also, some people want to see pictures of handsome men.""D, those are anonymous...

Zarabozo sentenced to life

Posted on May 06, 2009
Judge Huck imposed five consecutive life sentences plus 85 years on 21-year-old Guillermo Zarabozo for his role in the murders and other crimes committed aboard the Joe Cool. Zarabozo maintained that his accomplice Kirby Archer, who is serving a life sentence, was solely responsible for the killings.

Paris to answer questions from The Chief's witness chair?

Posted on May 06, 2009
The media are giddy over poor Paris' deposition in connection with Goldberg v. Paris Hilton Entertainment, Inc., a case pending before The Chief. Tew Cardenas represents the receiver for a local company that invested in a movie Paris was in but allegedly did not do enough to promote...

The "maybe-nots" have it

Posted on May 05, 2009
Have a rough day at the office ahead of you today? I bet Judge Lenard can sympathize. Apparently, "sternly order[ing]" the jurors in the Liberty City 6 trial "to follow the law and obey her instructions regarding their duty to deliberate" (as Curt Anderson put it for AP) did not do the trick...

Faculty disapproves Acosta's bid for FIU deanship

Posted on May 05, 2009
The FIU College of Law faculty recommended that the university not offer the deanship to U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta, reports the DBR. (The on-line article is apparently available only with a paid subscription so I can't link to it.) The faculty endorsed two candidates, Beto Juarez, dean of the DU Sturm College of Law?a fantastic place to spend spring semester teaching criminal procedure and skiing?and Joel Friedman, a Tulane Law professor...

A tiresome rant on grammar but you get a free DFW essay out of it

Posted on May 05, 2009
So, the other day I'm at the gym over at the U and one of the undergrads who works there is all excited about his LSAT score and can't wait to apply to law school. I ask him how he feels about grammar and diagramming sentences, and he looks at me like I'm some kind of walking non-sequitur because what he's really good at is arguing...

Too much democracy

Posted on May 04, 2009
Go here right now and type in David Oscar Markus. Or copy and paste it. I've made it easy for you.

Help Wanted

Posted on May 04, 2009
So, D.O.M. calls and he's all, "Why haven't you posted anything all day long?" and I'm like, "Dude, I've been working like a dog, yo," and he's all up in my face with, "Doing what?" like he's the boss of me or whatevers and I'm like, "Grading papers and exams," and then he busts out with, "What's all that wind?" like if he doesn't know I like to grade on the Bay and now that's gonna be a thing because, "Think of the Blog!" and everything...

"Please help us, judge."

Posted on May 03, 2009
It didn't take. The mind-wipe, I mean. It didn't work.Friday afternoon, deliberations over the fate of the Liberty City Six hit a new snag, according to reports by the Associated Press and the Miami Herald. Here's the abridged version of the AP report:A few hours after an ill juror was replaced, a note signed by the jury foreman in the "Liberty City Six" case said a female juror "refuses to engage in discussions based on the evidence or the law" and that this could be "unfair to the defendants," according to U...

SDFla Blog Origins

Posted on May 03, 2009
This weekend Hollywood brought us the career-beginning adventures of Wolverine and the mutants and (way more importantly) the crew of the Starship Enterprise. So I thought I'd stay on theme and screen the clip of how D.O.M. came to start this blog.And that's how it happened...

Souter succession speculation

Posted on May 02, 2009
ABC News Supreme Court correspondent Jan Crawford Greenberg canceled her scheduled appearance today at the Eleventh Circuit Judicial Extravaganza in Birmingham. Instead, she stayed in Washington to contribute to the frenzy of speculation about Justice Souter's successor...

Judge Altonaga feted in New Haven

Posted on May 02, 2009
The Latino Law Students Association at Yale Law School is awarding SDFla Judge Altonaga (YLS '86) its Public Service Award tonight at New Haven's Union League Caf�. Dean (and Supreme Court Candidate�) Harold Koh is scheduled to attend. Last year, LLSA honored Judge (and Supreme Court Candidate�) Jos� Cabranes (which we know because they have yet to update their web site)...

Bern backs UBS

Posted on May 02, 2009
The government of Switzerland filed an elegantly understated amicus brief for Judge Gold's consideration on Thursday (according to PACER) or yesterday (according to the media). The upshot of it is that enforcement of the United States' summons?which it implies (but refrains from outright saying) is just a "fishing expedition"?circumvents the applicable treaty and violates Swiss law...

"I direct you to wipe your minds clean."

Posted on May 01, 2009
That was Judge Lenard instructing the Liberty City jury to start over with its deliberations, after replacing a sick juror with an alternate. Here is Jay Weaver's article.

Guest Blogger

Posted on May 01, 2009
Professor Ricardo Bascuas has agreed to guest-blog next week. Have fun!

John S. Kastrenakes new Circuit Judge in Palm Beach

Posted on April 30, 2009

Another mistrial?

Posted on April 30, 2009
The Liberty City 6 case looks like it's on the way to another mistrial...UPDATE -- 4PM -- Judge Lenard dismissed the sick juror. She is hearing arguments about replacing that juror with an alternate. Here's the Herald article.Original post from this morning addressing the problem:Here's the Herald article:Jury deliberations in the third terrorism trial of a group of inner-city Miami men accused of collaborating with al Qaeda were delayed Thursday because a juror has fallen ill and cannot return until next week...

Justice Souter retiring at the end of the Term

Posted on April 30, 2009
WOW!! Big news!!Here's ScotusBlog:Justice David H. Souter has decided to retire when the Supreme Court completes its current Term in early summer, the NBC-TV network reported Thursday night. The 69-year-old jurist, who is completing his 19th year on the Court, has passed word of his plans to others, and the White House has been told, according to the network?s account...

Supreme Court affirms 11th Circuit...

Posted on April 29, 2009
... in US v. Dean. Chief Justice Roberts opens the opinion this way:Accidents happen. Sometimes they happen to individuals committing crimes with loaded guns. The question here is whether extra punishment Congress imposed for the discharge of a gun during certain crimes applies whenthe gun goes off accidentally...

"There is no constitutionally significant difference between masturbating in front of a minor in person versus doing so via web camera."

Posted on April 28, 2009
That's the Eleventh Circuit in USA v. Aldrich. Not sure I have anything to add to that one.Moving on to other appellate news, the 11th Circuit reversed Judge Highsmith's sentence of probation for James Hendrick, "once Monroe County's powerful government attorney...

Here's $60K to go work somewhere else

Posted on April 27, 2009
Apparently some of the big firms in DC, Boston, and New York are paying people to take a year off and work at a public interest job. Here's the Boston Globe story. Any word of that happening here in Miami?From the article:With his degree from Harvard Law School due in June, Juan Valdivieso makes an attractive prospective hire, and last summer, he scooped up a postgraduation job offer from the white-shoe firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in his native Washington, D...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

District Judge Upholds Texas' Moment of Silence Law
In 2003, the Texas legislature amended a "moment of silence" law s...