The SDFLA Blog is dedicated to providing news and notes regarding federal practice in the Southern District of Florida. The New Times calls the blog "the definitive source on South Florida's federal court system." All tips on court happenings are welcome and will remain anonymous. Please email David Markus at dmarkus@markuslaw.com
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Judges dispute goes public
Many of you have seen on the email rounds the Zloch-Moreno memos that went back and forth. We made the decision not to blog about it for the reasons Judge Palermo articulated in this Julie Kay article. But now that it's in the DBR, we post the article for your review. I am in Court this morning, so I will have more soon.
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13 comments:
Should make for some interesting cocktail discussion at the Federation reception.
Hire richard hersch and in addition to annoying jokes, here's the zealous and well planned defense you receive: ''He killed him because the guy was wanting to hurt him,'' Hersch said during pretrial arguments.
Julie Kay's article says that Judge Moreno is Cuban American. I thought he was born in Caracas, Venzuela.
The memo from Zloch to Moreno says that one of the district judges in the SDFla. tried to undermine Clarence Maddox's efforts to obtain the 6th Circuit gig. Any sense as to who that might have been? On a separate note, Zloch's memo to Moreno is odd to say the least; it's like hitting the "reply all" button on an office email--never a good idea.
The public should have access to these memos. Why is Moreno not disclosing his response? We should at least give Zloch credit for putting it out there for everyone to see and not trying to hide it from the public's view. Seems to me that the transparency that Moreno harped on for purposes of posting plea agreements on-line should apply here. Bit ironic if you ask me.
This is not the sort of thing that should have been done publicly. This should have been discreetly discussed between the two of them (if at all). This is not an issue of mismanagement of the Court or of abuse of power. Moreover, Moreno is well within his right to tell Zloch to shove it, and to do it in private.
The public nature of this "debate" has only distracted attention from actual issues that require Court attention.
"Should make for some interesting cocktail discussion at the Federation reception."
Zloch and Moreno are Jewish?
Congratulations to Judge Zloch for having the courage to make such a bold suggestion. And thank you DBR for making this public. It's a real shame that this 2 bit blog chose to suppress such a great story. Judge Graham would be a terrific Chief Judge, and true diversity at the highest levels is long overdue. DLG for Chief!!!!!
Judge Graham is black? Never noticed.
Rumpole said (and was right):
"In the final analysis, this memo is a slap in the face to Judge Graham. He has many many things to be proud of. He is a universally well respected Judge. There isn't a lawyer I know who would not put Judge Graham on the top of any list of judges they would like to try a case in front of. Judge Graham is accomplished, bright, fair, and charitable. To debase his accomplishments by insinuating that his race played or should play any part whatsoever in his success is demeaning."
The real question is what motivated Zloch to write the memo to begin with ? I don't believe there has ever been a Hispanic Chief Judge either, so whats up with that?
To insinuate that this is racially driven is absolute nonsense.
Dat Rumpole quote is not really flattering. It does not really say positive things about the judge. It says lawyers respect him and like to try their cases in front of him. Lawyers (defense and AUSAs) would say that about a crooked, dumb judge too who ruled in their favor mor then 50% of the time. Lawyers are notoriously bad judges of character. Being a character does no mean you have character.
I've read the transparently-nasty, ill-conceived, meanly-motivated "memo" sent by District Judge William Zloch to the Chief Judge.
Nobody is a bigger fan of Judge Donald Graham than I, nor does anybody have more respect for him, both in terms of ability and temperament. In both regards, he far out-strips the one who so hypocritically sang his praises. If one needed a "tip-off," one only need read his comments about Maddox, whom all knew to be an egomaniac and a mean-spirited, tyrannical little Napoleon.
"The system" in this District has long, long been established. Chips fall where they may, and even district judges play the cards they're dealt. Judge Zloch is so far out of bounds, it's breathtaking. It leaves one to wonder: why did he himself not resign out of deference to Chief Judge Moreno?
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