Sunday, October 02, 2022

October Term 2022 and diversity in the courts

 It's here.

And --thankfully -- we have a much more diverse Court.


In addition to the diversity on SCOTUS, we are making inroads in courts around the country, including here at home.  Congrats to Penny Augustin-Birch, who was sworn in as our newest magistrate judge.





Meantime, I apologize for the sporadic blogging.  It's been a year of trials for me, starting with one here in Miami before Judge Martinez, then in Denver before a different Judge Martinez, and after that, one in Fort Myers of all places.  The jury in that case went out on the Friday before Hurricane Ian turned towards SW Florida.  The jury indicated it was hung, and the parties expected that we would be back for further deliberations last week.  And of course, we couldn't.  Tragically, Fort Myers was devastated and the courthouse is closed indefinitely.  A mistrial was declared.  Here's an article about it.

At the end of this month, my partner Margot and I will be headed off to SDNY for a lengthy trial out there, so blogging will be a little rough when I'm away, but I will do my best.  Wish us luck!  

And if you'd like to write a guest post, just email me.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats to Judge Birch - likely the first Haitian-American federal judge in Florida and perhaps the first female Haitian-American federal judge in our nation.

Anonymous said...

I think you may be right. Judge Lohier was the first Haitian-Canadian-American federal judge.

Anonymous said...

Not bad for a AFPD who managed to have only one trial her entire fed career. Inexperience must be the new norm.