11th Circuit

The judges are back from the 11th Circuit conference, which was in Savannah, Georgia last week.

Apparently the agenda included a re-enactment of a slavery trial that occurred in Savannah and also a speech by a Thomas Jefferson impersonator.



Meantime, there are still two openings on the 11th Circuit and apparently no progress being made in moving those nominations forward.

Since the 11th got back to business this week, it has ruled on an interesting case involving Cuba.  From Bloomberg:

Florida lost a court bid to reinstate a law prohibiting state agencies from entering into contracts worth $1 million or more with companies that do business with Cuba.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta said today that the Florida measure “reaches far beyond the federal law in numerous ways and undermines the president’s exercise of the discretion afforded him by Congress.” A three-judge panel upheld a July ruling by a lower court in Miami barring enforcement of the law.
The “Cuba Amendment” legislation was signed on May 1, 2012, by Florida Governor Rick Scott, a Republican, and covers an estimated $8 billion in annual state contracts, the appeals court said. The law, designed to apply economic pressure to the communist regime in Cuba beyond the U.S. government sanctions already in place, was challenged by Odebrecht Construction Inc. 

And back home in South Florida, it looks like Judge Rosenbaum will be busy with this case filed by Frank Haith.  From the Herald:


Former University of Miami basketball coach Frank Haith on Monday morning filed a petition in Miami-Dade federal court seeking subpoenas to try to uncover whether his checking account records were accessed illegally by unauthorized parties as part of the NCAA Nevin Shapiro investigation.
He and his attorney, Michael Buckner, want to be able to depose Bank of America employees and make sure the bank preserves evidence in anticipation of a civil lawsuit.
The Rule 27 Petition, obtained by The Miami Herald, states that in October 2012, Haith and his wife, Pamela, became suspicious of a possible privacy breach and have tried unsuccessfully to resolve the issue through repeated requests to the bank. If a Bank of America employee or agent permitted an unknown party to view or procure the records, it could be a violation of federal and state laws.
Haith, now at the University of Missouri, had been asked by the NCAA to provide microfiche copies of three checks dated June 10, 2010. He had already provided photocopies of those checks, and other financial documents, in October 2011, but the NCAA wanted clearer images. Each check was for $3,200 andmade out to his assistant coaches — Jorge Fernandez, Jake Morton and Michael Schwartz.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/07/3383416/bank-account-of-ex-um-coach-frank.html#storylink=cpy