Judge Peter T. Fay

 By John R. Byrne

An SDFLA trivia question: which judges served on our district court before being elevated to the appellate court (5th or 11th Circuit)? 

One such judge is Judge Peter T. Fay.  Judge Fay's Senate confirmation hearing for his district court post was held on October 13, 1970. There must have been something in the water they served on Capitol Hill that day because, like Judge Fay, the other judges who appeared with him before the committee (Judge Tjoflat and Judge King) also served on the federal bench for over fifty years (with Tjoflat and King still serving). 

In the above photograph, from left to right, is Judge King, Judge Paul Roney, U.S. Senator Spessard Holland, U.S. Senator Edward Gurney (who was my great Uncle, randomly enough), Judge Fay, and Judge Tjoflat.

Judge Fay was also an excellent athlete and is in the Rollins College sports Hall of Fame for basketball, football, and, believe it or not, water skiing. FBA write up below.

Judge Peter T. Fay was nominated by President Nixon to the district court in 1970. Prior to his judicial service, Judge Fay served in the Air Force as a lieutenant. He served as a district judge until 1976, when President Ford nominated him to serve on the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (which later split to form the Eleventh). In N.L.R.B. v. Crockett-Bradley, Inc., 598 F. 2d. 971 (5th Cir. 1979), Judge Fay denied the National Labor Relations Board’s request to hold an employer in contempt, finding that the inability to reach an agreement is not alone evidence of a bad-faith refusal to bargain. At the time of Judge Fay’s death, he was one of just 26 federal judges to have served on the bench for fifty years.

KBJ attended the Grammys

And people freaked out -- even though she was nominated for an award.  Sen. Marsha Blackburn is calling for an investigation!  From The Hill:

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) called for an investigation Thursday into Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson for attending the Grammy Awards, where various artists criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Jackson was nominated in the Best Audio Book, Narration and Storytelling Recording category for her memoir “Lovely One.” The Grammy award went to the Dalai Lama for “Mediations: The Reflections of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.”

“Americans deserve a Supreme Court that is impartial and above political influence,” Blackburn wrote on social platform X. “When a Justice participates in such a highly politicized event, it raises ethical questions. We need an investigation into Justice Jackson’s ability to remain impartial.”

Blackburn also sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts “to conduct a thorough investigation” into the ethics of Jackson’s attendance at the award show and her “ability to remain impartial with respect to immigration matters that come before the Court.”

“For the following reasons, I urge you to conduct a thorough investigation into Justice Jackson’s attendance at this event and whether her presence at such an event complies with the obligation that a Supreme Court justice ‘act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary,'” Blackburn’s letter to Roberts reads, according to a statement from her office.

 

"This job sucks."

That was an AUSA in Minnesota to the Court.  Bloomberg covers it here:

A US government attorney expressed unusual frustration in a courtroom proceeding about the difficulty in ensuring Immigration and Customs Enforcement complies with rulings ordering the release of migrants detained in the Trump administration’s Minnesota enforcement operation.

“The system sucks, this job sucks,” Julie Le, an attorney representing the US attorney’s office in Minnesota, said Tuesday in response to a federal judge’s questions on situations where courts have found ICE violated court orders in migrants’ cases, according to a person who was in the courtroom.

Le, who has been helping the US attorney’s office handle habeas petitions from migrants in Minnesota, compared pushing ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to comply as pulling teeth, and said she wished US District Judge Jerry Blackwell would hold her in contempt so she could get 24 hours of sleep, the person in the room said.

Le’s uncommon remarks come amid reports of new mass resignations of federal prosecutors in Minnesota. Justice Department lawyers have also struggled with a flood of habeas petitions related to the Trump administration’s crackdown of undocumented migrants, known as Operation Metro Surge.

The hearing Tuesday dealt with five separate habeas petitions from detained migrants, each of whom were transferred to other states as the US District Court for the District of Minnesota ordered their release. Blackwell called the hearing to determine how to move forward to ensure the administration complies with migrant release orders.

And here is the transcript.

Meantime, the U.S. Attorney's office in Miami is hiring!

🌟We are hiring! 🌟
👉Learn more here: https://t.co/EVfFGX8jEj pic.twitter.com/fhT0VgWsNx

— US Attorney Reding Quiñones (@USAO_SDFL) February 3, 2026

Judge James Lawrence King

By John R. Byrne

The portrait project launched by the South Florida Chapter of the FBA continues this week with a focus on Senior Judge James Lawrence King. President Nixon nominated Judge King to the bench in 1970 and he's been serving ever since, going on 55-plus years now, which is just an incredible run. In 1996, Congress designated the Miami Federal Justice Building as the "James Lawrence King Federal Justice Building" (which most everyone just calls the "King Building"). With that many years on the bench, Judge King's clerkship family is quite large and several of his law clerks have gone on to impressive careers here in Miami.

FBA write up below:

Judge James L. King is the first of our featured judges who is still serving our district as a senior judge. Judge King is a Miami native. He graduated from Redlands High School before attending the University of Florida for both his undergraduate and law degrees. Judge King served in the Air Force as a Judge Advocate General and then entered private practice. He was nominated to the district court by President Nixon in 1970. Judge King has written many notable rulings in his time on the bench, including ruling in Alexandre v. Republic of Cuba, 996 F. Supp. 1239 (Dec. 17, 1997), that relatives of the Brothers to the Rescue pilots shot down by the Cuban Air Force could sue Cuba for wrongful death. On April 30, 1996, the United States Congress renamed the Federal Justice Building at 99 N.E. 4th Street in Miami the James Lawrence King Federal Justice Building.

Judicial Reception (Thursday, Feb. 12)

By John R. Byrne

Looking for something to do next Thursday? Join us at the Frost Museum of Science for the Judicial Reception put on by the South Florida Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. This is always a great event. No speeches, formalities, or fancy evening wear. Just an opportunity to connect with our federal judges and fellow lawyers. 

You can get tickets through this link. I hope to see you there.

Wow, read this order

 It's short but very powerful.  I don't want to ruin it, but it ends this way:

With a judicial finger in the constitutional dike,
It is so ORDERED. 

Alexander brothers trial gets started

The opening statements were interesting.  Madison Smyser opened for the prosecution.  Teny Geragos (who opened in Diddy) and Deanna Paul opened for the defense. three women in a sexual assault case against 3 men.  

Howard Srebnick reserved opening for the third brother.  Have any of you ever reserved opening?  It's an interesting strategy when you have co-defendants who are laying out the defense.  It gives the defense another opportunity at the end of the prosecution case to address the jury.  

Here's ABC on the openings:

Three sons of wealth and privilege "were partners in crime" who used their money and status to lure women and girls with promises of trips, exclusive parties and celebrity encounters so they could sexually assault them, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday during opening statements in the trial of Alon, Oren and Tal Alexander.

"These three brothers masqueraded as party boys when really they were predators," the prosecutor, Madison Smyser, said. "The brothers used whatever means necessary -- sometimes drugs, sometimes alcohol, sometimes brute force -- to carry out their rapes."

The former real estate titans, Oren and Tal Alexander, along with their brother, Alon Alexander, have denied sexually assaulting anyone or running a sex trafficking conspiracy, as prosecutors have charged. They sat at the defense tables with their lawyers in suits and open-collar shirts.

***

"They came from a wealthy family, and they lived a life of luxury.  But their luxurious lifestyle had a dark side," Smyser said.

A defense attorney called the brothers successful, ambitious, arrogant young men "who liked and pursued women" so they could have as much sex as possible. 

"That's not trafficking. That's dating. That's hooking up," the lawyer, Teny Geragos, said during opening statements.  She said the accusers, many of whom are expected to testify under pseudonyms, are motivated by shame, regret or money.

Prosecutors told the jury of six men and six women they would see a recording of Oren Alexander's alleged rape of a then-17-year-old who will testify under the name Amelia.  She was "far from sober, almost incoherent" at the time and has no memory of what happened, Smyser said. 

***

The defense conceded the brothers were womanizers who jurors might find immoral but insisted they were not criminals.

"It was crude, it was arrogant, it will make you cringe," defense attorney Deanna Paul said.  "But we're not here for the Asshole Awards."

InnerCity Press covers the case in detail here, including Howard's cross of the first witness.  

 

 

Judge Alicia Valle's "Divestiture"

 By John R. Byrne

This past Friday, the Court held a retirement reception for Magistrate Judge Alicia Valle. She dubbed the event her official "divestiture." Magistrate Judge Hunt was the master of ceremonies for the event, which featured several speakers, including retired Magistrate Judge Barry Seltzer, Magistrate Judge Matthewman, Chief Judge Altonaga, and Holland & Knight partner (and former Valle law clerk), Cary Aronovitz. The speakers did an excellent job conveying Judge Valle's work ethic and heart. We also learned that, for years, Judge Valle and Judge Hunt coordinated their Halloween costumes (some great pairings, including Gomez and Morticia Addams of Addams Family fame).

Judge Valle was an excellent magistrate judge and universally respected by attorneys, civil and criminal alike. We're going to miss her.