A new federal courthouse for Fort Lauderdale is included in a massive $1.3 trillion federal spending agreement that has bipartisan support and is expected to be approved in the next few days.
News that the $190 million downtown project was part of the package reached the city Wednesday from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who phoned the city’s current and former mayors with the good news.
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The 39-year-old current courthouse at Broward Boulevard and Northeast Third Avenue has had a leaking roof and mold problems, doesn’t have sufficient office space and wasn’t designed for current federal security requirements. The courthouse has been No. 3 on the priority list for new courthouses since 2016.
The General Services Administration is conducting a feasibility study for the new courthouse that should be completed by June. It will then be up to the GSA to pick a site for the new courthouse.
In other news, the 11th Circuit held today that possession of a round of ammunition is not sufficient to conduct a search for a firearm. The suppression motion should have been granted. The case is United States v. Johnson. The court framed the issue this way:
This appeal requires us to consider whether the pat down of a burglary suspect and the identification of a round of ammunition in the suspect’s pocket constitutionally allowed the officer to retrieve the round and another item from the suspect’s pocket.
4 comments:
And still nothing new for the state courthouse in Miami...
Nowhere to go besides expanding next to existing location.
Just wipe that block of ugly out of there already and build anew.
Nobody uses the courtrooms for trials anyway.
It's about time they did something about the Ft. Lauderdale Federal Courthouse. Not only does it have the structural problems you mention, but it is one of the ugliest courthouses I have ever been in, a prime existing example of the brief "Clockwork Orange" era in institutional architecture. Good riddance.
Rehearing en banc coming at ya!
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