Passover news and notes

1. FAWL not happy with the JNC makeup (via DBR/John Pacenti). Lisa Lehner: "When the white male establishment decides it wants to respond and deal with this issue, what they do is take a nickel-and-dime approach, and they will put one woman on and say, 'OK, we did it, we solved the problem,' " Lehner said. "And then they think we will go away like nice girls and be quiet. We took a baby step, but women aren't babies."

2. Forget about the JNC; how about getting some judges? Via Daily Record: “We presently have a crisis in the federal judiciary in our country,” said Chief Judge Joel Dubina of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

Dubina told Jacksonville lawyers that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts recently spoke to members of Congress about the crisis.

”At the time I prepared my remarks for you today, there were 104 vacancies pending in the federal judiciary in the United States. That includes District Court positions and Court of Appeals positions,” said Dubina.
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“I think there is much blame to go around for this crisis. In my lifetime, President Obama has been the slowest president to make nominations,” said Dubina.

“However, blame also lies with Congress. The Congress has been slow to approve judges, even those who were not controversial,” he said.

3. A loyal reader tells me that Paul Pelletier (former AUSA down here and current DOJ fraud prosecutor) is retiring and that the going away party in DC on May 5 is called "Paul-apalooza".

4. The WSJ Law Blog asks whether the feds need a warrant to track someone with GPS. I'm not sure how we can allow tracking of people with GPS without requiring a warrant, but what do I know.

5. A couple of law professors have written an op-ed in the NYT that we should basically get rid of habeas corpus because it's too costly and doesn't really help anything. I say we leave habeas and start by getting rid of the grand jury, which is a complete waste.