Sen. Grassley throws another wrench into the judicial selection process

 He sent this letter to Middle District of Florida Chief Judge Corrigan railing against the Middle District's decision to post on its website the "House based" JNC's notice and application process.  Our District quickly took down the same links on its website.  

From the letter (footnotes omitted):

By posting this notice, your Court is giving credibility to the “Commission” against the stated views of Senators Rubio and Scott. For example, there is no similar announcement for how interested parties can reach out to Florida’s U.S. Senators. The Middle District of Florida is, therefore, taking a side in a pending, partisan political dispute. As a result the federal judiciary has found itself in the middle of a purely political conflict between the House, the Senate, and the President. This bodes ill for its perceived independence. 

I have the following questions for you. 

1. At whose request did you place this notice on the Middle District’s website? 

2. Were you aware that Florida’s Senior Senator, Marco Rubio, said of this “Commission,” “We can’t stop Joe Biden from consulting with whomever he wants in picking nominees, but this effort has no legitimacy in our eyes with regards to our advise-and-consent role.” 

3. Were you aware that Florida’s Junior Senator, Rick Scott, upon hearing of this “Commission,” wrote to President Biden to oppose this “attempt[] [by House Democrats] to insert themselves into the nomination process”?

4. Did you consult with either Senator Rubio or Scott before issuing your Court’s announcement about the “Commission”? 

5. What, if any, ethics advice did you receive before announcing the House “Commission” on the Middle District’s website?

6. Will you agree to take remedial action in order to prevent the appearance of partisan political activity on the part of your Court? In particular, will you (a) remove the notice about the House “Commission” and (b) issue a further notice that the Court takes no part in or position on the nomination process for federal office in Florida? If not, why not? 

The complaint that "there is no similar announcement for how interested parties can reach out to Florida's U.S. Senators" is strange.  Have Rubio or Scott announced how they intend to vet candidates?  I'm sure the MDFLA would be fine posting that information as well. The problem, though, is that Scott has said he will try to block any Biden nominee.  I wonder if Grassley has a problem with that.

More judges on the way?

 The judicial conference is recommending 3 more district judges in the SDFLA.  But there's a real question of whether any judges will be confirmed right now, with the JNC not being supported by Rubio or Scott.  Rubio apparently has his own JNC.  Scott wants nothing to do with that either.  So will any judges get blue slips going forward?  There's a real concern with people I'm speaking with that no judges will be confirmed unless President Biden and the Democratic Senate get rid of the blue slip process in Florida.  We shall see.

Here's a recent TBT article about the back and forth on the JNC:

Florida’s two Republican senators, Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, are refusing to participate in a longstanding, bipartisan system for nominating federal judges that Florida legal insiders say has produced non-political, competent judicial nominees for decades.

Both Scott and Rubio have said they won’t participate with Florida House Democrats who are setting up Florida’s federal Judicial Nominating Commissions — even though bipartisan cooperation has long been typical.

Scott and Rubio called it an infringement on the Senate’s exclusive right to confirm judges.

Instead, the two senators say they’ll rely on their own sources for recommending judicial nominees, as well as on senators’ traditional prerogative to single-handedly block nominees in their home states.

BREAKING -- Federal JNC is formed (UPDATED with a correction from Sen. Rubio's office)

The South Florida Federal JNC is:

Vivian de las Cuevas-Diaz

Larry Handfield

Retired Judge Ilona Holmes

Eduardo Lacasa

Victoria Mesa-Estrada

Burnadette Norris-Weeks

Retired Justice Barbara Pariente

I've been told that 5 Dem picks, two Rubio picks (update, this is incorrect; see below), and that Scott refused to participate.  These 7 people will make recommendations for federal judges and U.S. Attorney.  More to follow.

Updated with this statement from a spokesperson for Sen. Rubio to the blog:

“Senator Rubio is not a participant in this JNC.  Due to his longtime working relationship with Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz, at her request he provided the names of Republicans who have served on his JNC in the past. However they are not his appointees. As he has done his entire time in the Senate, he will continue to rely on his own bipartisan commission to assist in fulfilling his role in the Senate’s constitutional duty to provide advice and consent on judicial nominees. And as he has done in the previous two Congresses, he will make decisions on U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Marshals directly.” 

Did the Dems win the fight against DeSantis regarding the Florida Supreme Court?

 Well, the challenge was successful and Renatha Francis is out.  The Governor appointed Jamie Grosshans, 41, in her place.  Grosshams was appointed to the county bench when she was 38.  Of the choices DeSantis had from the JNC list, many said that Grosshans was the most right wing and her reputation is certainly more conservative than Francis.  Does anyone have any experience before her either in county, circuit, or the 5th?

Meantime, DeSantis said that Francis should now be considered for a federal seat in the Southern District of Florida.  Currently David Leibowitz is still up for Judge Moreno's seat, but there has been no movement there in a while.  Leibowitz is a great guy; smart and personable.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  If Biden is elected in November, will there be enough time for Trump to fill Moreno's seat?  

Democratic Debates in Miami (UPDATED)

They start tonight with 10 candidates and another 10 tomorrow night. Seems like way too many to have any meaningful discussion.

Will the topic of judges be brought up?

Criminal Justice?

Meantime, the final decisions from the Supreme Court are coming out in a few minutes, and any stragglers will be tomorrow. Check SCOTUSblog for updates.

Finally, I haven’t heard anything about the Rubio JNC interviews on Monday. If you have any tips or intel, please let me know and I will post it anonymously.

UPDATE — Justice Gorsuch again rules with the 4 liberal Justices on a criminal justice issue, this time in a sex-offender case. Here’s the opinion. He’s channeling his inner-Scalia. Here’s how the opinion starts:

Only a jury, acting on proof beyond a reasonable doubt,may take a person’s liberty. That promise stands as one ofthe Constitution’s most vital protections against arbitrary government. Yet in this case a congressional statute compelled a federal judge to send a man to prison for aminimum of five years without empaneling a jury of hispeers or requiring the government to prove his guilt be-yond a reasonable doubt. As applied here, we do not hesitate to hold that the statute violates the Fifth and Sixth Amendments

BREAKING -- President Trump nominates three to SDFLA bench

Congratulations to Roy Altman, Rudy Ruiz, and Rodney Smith for being officially nominated to the U.S. District Bench for the Southern District of Florida. Here is the White House press release:

If confirmed, Roy K. Altman of Florida will serve as a District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Roy Altman is a partner at Podhurst Orseck P.A., where his practice has focused on aviation and commercial litigation since 2014. Before entering private practice, Mr. Altman served for six years as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, where he prosecuted hundreds of cases covering the full range of Federal criminal conduct. Over this period, Mr. Altman tried more than 20 cases to jury verdict and argued several of these before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. During his service as a Federal prosecutor, Mr. Altman won a number of awards including the Director of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys Award for “Superior Litigation Team” in United States v. Mentor (first-degree murder), the Director of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys Award for “Superior Litigation Performance” in United States v. Flanders (human trafficking), the Federal Bar Association Young Federal Lawyer Award (one of five attorneys under 37 nationwide), and the “Federal Prosecutor of the Year” award from the Miami-Dade County Association of Chiefs of Police and the Law Enforcement Officers Charitable Foundation. Upon graduation from law school, Mr. Altman served as a law clerk to Miami-based Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Mr. Altman earned his B.A., cum laude, from Columbia University, where he played baseball and football, and his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he served as the projects editor of the Yale Law Journal.

If confirmed, Rodolfo “Rudy” Ruiz II of Florida will serve as a District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Rudy Ruiz currently serves as a Circuit Judge in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida since his appointment by the Governor in 2014. As a Circuit Judge, Judge Ruiz has presided over both civil and criminal divisions. He previously served for two years as a County Court Judge in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, where he handled a full range of civil and criminal cases. Before ascending to the bench, Judge Ruiz served for three years as an Assistant County Attorney in the Miami-Dade County Attorney’s Office, where he handled a wide range of civil defense matters in Federal and State court at both trial and appellate levels. Before joining the County Attorney’s Office, Judge Ruiz practiced corporate law in the Miami office of White & Case LLP. Upon graduation from law school, Judge Ruiz served as a law clerk to Judge Federico A. Moreno of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Judge Ruiz earned his B.S. from Duke University and his J.D. from Georgetown University, where he was an articles editor of the American Criminal Law Review.

If confirmed, Rodney Smith of Florida will serve as a District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Rodney Smith serves as a Circuit Judge in the civil and felony criminal divisions of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, where he has served since his appointment by the Governor in 2012. In this capacity, he also serves as co-chair of the Diversity Committee of the Florida Conference of Circuit Judges. He previously served for four years as a Miami-Dade County Court Judge of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, where he handled both civil and criminal cases. Before ascending to the bench, Judge Smith served as a senior assistant city attorney in the Office of the City Attorney for Miami Beach, where he handled a broad range of civil defense matters. Before joining the City Attorney’s office, Judge Smith practiced insurance defense law at a number of private Miami firms. Upon graduation from law school, Judge Smith served for four years as an Assistant State Attorney in the Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s Office. Judge Smith earned his B.S., cum laude, from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, and his J.D., cum laude, from the Michigan State University College of Law.

This still leaves two open spots on the court. No word on whether the JNC will forward new names or whether the White House is going to pick different people.

JNC schedules interviews for Federal District Judge

The Federal JNC has scheduled interviews for Federal District Judge as follows:

DAY ONE November 28, 2017

9:00 am           Benjamin Greenberg

9:40 am           Migna Sanchez-Llorens

10:20 am         Rodney Smith

11:00 am         John Thornton

11:40 am         Marina Garcia Wood

12:15 – 1:00 pm          LUNCH

1:00 pm           Angel Cortinas

1:40 pm           John Kastrenakes

2:20 pm           Orlando Prescott

3:00 pm           Melissa Visconti

3:40 pm           Beatrice Butchko

4:20 pm           Raag Singhal

5:00 pm           Antonio Arzola

DAY TWO November 29, 2017

9:00 am           Roy Altman

9:40 am           Thomas Rebull

10:20 am         Michael Sherwin

11:00 am         Dina Keever-Agrama

11:40 am         Daryl Trawick

12:15 – 1:00 pm          LUNCH

1:00 pm           William Roby

1:40 pm           Peter Lopez

2:20 pm           Jeffrey Colbath

3:00 pm           David Haimes

3:40 pm           Rodolfo Ruiz

4:20 pm           Mark Klingensmith

5:00 pm           Meenu Sasser 

The 24 interviews will be narrowed to 10 recommendations to the 2 Florida Senators.  They will then recommend 5 to the White House.

JNC accepting applications for federal judge

The JNC is now accepting applications for federal judge.  Here is the letter explaining the procedure.  There are 5 vacancies, and the JNC will be sending up 10 names.  These are all openings for Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm, and Ft. Pierce.  None of the openings are for Miami.  The applications are due October 12 and interviews will be November 28 and 29.  Here is the application form.

(Also, applications are due today for magistrate judge).

More on the U.S. Attorney slot below.

Carlos López-Cantera to Chair Statewide Panel Vetting Federal Judicial Candidates

Florida's Federal Judicial Nominating Committee (referred to as the JNC) is going to be reconstituted. That was in question after the Trump election. But Sen. Rubio issued this press release today:

U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) will once again constitute the Florida Federal Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) to identify highly qualified individuals as finalists to become U.S. district judges in each of the three judicial districts in Florida. Today, it was announced that Carlos López-Cantera will serve as statewide chair of Florida’s Federal JNC.

“I am extremely pleased to have Carlos López-Cantera serve as statewide chair of Florida’s Federal Judicial Nominating Commission,” said Rubio. “Carlos is well-suited for this position and I am confident he is dedicated to this important process and will successfully lead the commission in identifying exceptional candidates to serve on the federal bench in Florida. I look forward to reviewing the commission’s selections and working with Senator Nelson and the president to ensure that these critical positions are filled.”

“I am honored to be selected to serve as the statewide chair of Florida’s Federal Judicial Nominating Commission,” said López-Cantera. “This is an extremely important process and I am committed to ensuring that the commission identifies for our senators’ consideration the most qualified applicants to serve as U.S. district judges. I am looking forward to working with all of the members of the commission to evaluate candidates based on their qualifications, experience, character, and integrity.”

Background:

The commission will invite applications for U.S. district judges and after a thorough and careful review of the applicants will select finalists who have the professional qualifications, character, integrity, experience, and temperament to perform the duties of a federal district judge and to uphold the public trust.

The commission will send the names of the finalists to Senators Rubio and Nelson for their individual and independent review and, if neither senator objects, those names will be forwarded to the White House for the president’s consideration.

Both senators reserve their constitutional rights to render advice and consent on any candidate or nominee.

Former Dolphin Will Allen going to prison for 6 years

From the AP:

Ex-NFL cornerback Will Allen and his business partner have been sentenced to prison for running a Ponzi scheme that took in more than $35 million.
A federal judge in Boston Wednesday sentenced Allen, of Davie, Florida, and Susan Daub, of Coral Springs, Florida, each to six years in prison and three years of supervised release. They also were ordered to pay restitution totaling $17 million.
Allen and Daub collected millions from investors between 2012 and 2015, saying it would be used for high-interest loans to professional athletes. Their Massachusetts business made some loans but they also diverted money to themselves and other ventures.

 This isn't his first run-in with the law (from Wiki):

Allen was arrested February 20, 2010 and charged with driving under the influence when he was stopped in a late-model Ferrari at 3:30 a.m. at the corner of Fifth Street and Alton Road, said Miami Beach police spokesman Detective Juan Sanchez.^[2]
According to the arrest report, Allen approached a police road-block and instead of following the detour, he kept driving toward a police car, stopping only two feet from it.
Will Allen was placed on injured reserve September 5, 2010 because of a knee, just one week before season opener ending his 2010 season.

In other news, we still don't know whether there is going to be a JNC here in Florida.  There's been no clarity on who will permanently fill Ferrer's slot as U.S. Attorney or how it will be done.  Ben Greenberg is the acting U.S. Attorney. 

Facebook comments calling judges "dumbasses" cost JNC appointment

Whoops.  The Tampa Tribune has the story about "Republican kingmaker Sam Rashid":

Valrico businessman and Republican kingmaker Sam Rashid has never been known to pull his punches.

But the outspoken Rashid managed to go a rant too far in a Facebook posting last week, referring to three unnamed Hillsborough County Circuit Judges as “dumbasses.”

Though he later edited the statement - replacing the word with “dumb mothers” - the posting cost Rashid a U.S. senatorial appointment to the Florida Federal Judicial Nominating Commission. The commission nominates candidates for federal judgeships, U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Marshals.

The posting also could prove an embarrassment to the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a longtime friend of Rashid who appointed him to the commission.

After accepting Rubio’s appointment on Friday, Rashid had to formally decline it a day later. In a Saturday letter to the senator’s general counsel, Gregg T. Nunziata, Rashid said he was clearly not the appropriate person to fill the commission post.

“I appreciate the Senator’s confidence,” Rashid wrote, “but I actually pre-judged some un-named Circuit Judges in Hillsborough County.”

Rashid credited Chris Ingram, a Republican consultant and columnist for The Tampa Tribune’s editorial page, for calling him out on the potential bias in his comments about the judges. Those same judges Rashid disparaged could someday come before him to seek an appointment to the federal bench, Ingram said.

“What Chris said made a lot of sense to me,” Rashid said. “I sent an e-mail to the senators saying, ‘You know what guys, I am biased. When it comes to these judges in Hillsborough County, I have a really strong bias.’”

HT Glenn Sugameli

BREAKING -- JNC CUTS LIST TO 3 FOR OPEN DISTRICT SEAT (UPDATED)

And those three are:

Mary Barzee-Flores
Peter Lopez
Barry Seltzer

Congrats to the finalists.  Now it's up to Nelson/Rubio and Obama for the nomination.

Update -- Apparently, the Herald sat through the interviews and posted this editorial about the appointment process:

The three South Florida finalists advancing for consideration for a coveted opening on the federal bench in the Southern District are to be congratulated. They’ve earned it.

On Thursday, they, along with other aspirants to the prestigious, lifetime appointment, sat on the hot seat in a large conference room on the 14th floor of the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse in downtown Miami.

A member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board was present as the 20-plus members of the Florida Judicial Nominating Commission quizzed and grilled the 15 candidates for 25 minutes each, the final phase of a long process that began in July for the privilege of having their names recommended to Florida’s two U.S. senators.

In this race, voters did not pick the winner; the blue-ribbon panel made up of local legal eagles and community leaders had the honor — and somehow that seemed right and how, perhaps, it should be done for all judicial races.

The different selection processes for state and federal judges — the first are generally elected, the latter selected — highlighted the anemic slate of judicial candidates and bitter races with plenty of mudslinging that played out in Miami-Dade and Broward last month. Judicial decorum was missing among a number of candidates.

Many of the eight contested circuit and county races in Miami-Dade were marked by the emergence of political committees supporting judicial candidates. Rival committees sent out biting attack mailers, unsavory in a judicial race, and scary — these are nonpartisan races in which candidates can only promise to follow the law. The most bitter contest pitted former Miami-Dade School Board member Renier Diaz de la Portilla against Veronica Diaz, an assistant attorney with the city of Miami. She eventually won.

Race and ethnicity also came into play, as has happened in the past. For example, the supporters of incumbent Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Rodney “Rod” Smith, who is black, accused unsuccessful challenger Christian Carrazana of running with the hope his last name appealed to voters in the heavily Hispanic county, a charge that Mr. Carrazana denied.

None of that took place Thursday in the conference room where committee members drilled down to gauge the smarts, temperament and dedication of each candidate.

News & Notes

1.  JNC interviews are today for the open federal seat.  Will be interesting to see who makes the cut.

2.  The 11th Circuit granted en banc review in United States v. Roy.  This was the case authored by Judge Wilson in which the court granted a new trial for a defendant because the district judge conducted part of the trial without him and his counsel.  Chief Judge Ed Carnes dissented.  Now the whole court is going to hear the case.  Interestingly, the Carneses are using their first names now to distinguish themselves.  Here's the beginning line of the order: Before ED CARNES, Chief Judge, TJOFLAT, HULL, MARCUS, WILSON, PRYOR, MARTIN, JORDAN, ROSENBAUM, and JULIE CARNES, Circuit Judges.  Soon the Pyrors will be doing the same thing...


3. Judge Tjoflat, joined by Judge Ed Carnes and Judge Marra, has this new opinion in United States v. Campbell, which starts this way:

In this case, Maurice William Campbell, Jr., and several co-conspirators, created, and successfully executed, a scheme to defraud the State of Alabama to the tune of several million dollars. The scheme was ultimately uncovered, and the co-conspirators were separately indicted by a Northern District of Alabama grand jury. Campbell was charged with wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property, and conspiring to commit those offenses.
Campbell pled not guilty and stood trial. Several of his co-conspirators, having pled guilty, testified for the prosecution. The jury believed what they had to say and found Campbell guilty as charged. At sentencing, the District Court departed downward from the sentence range the Sentencing Guidelines prescribed, 262 to 327 months’ confinement, and imposed prison sentences totaling 188 months. The court also ordered him to pay $5.9 million to the State of Alabama in the form of restitution.
Campbell appeals his convictions and sentences. He appeals his convictions on the ground that the Government failed to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.2 He appeals his sentences on the ground that they are procedurally and substantively unreasonable. See Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51, 128 S. Ct. 586, 597, 169 L. Ed. 2d 445 (2007). We find no merit in Campbell’s challenges to his convictions, and therefore affirm them, because the evidence of guilt, which we set out in considerable detail infra, was overwhelming. We also affirm his sentences, finding no procedural or substantive error.

4.  Check out  the Dade County Defense Bar Association's Fall 2014 Ethics Seminar, which is being put on by Robert Kuntz.  Looks interesting!

Interview list for Judge Rosenbaum's seat

Yesterday, I posted the link to the JNC's list of interviewees for Judge Rosenbaum's seat.  The Commission decided to interview 15 of the 24 people who applied.  Of those fifteen, 11 are state court judges.  There is a federal prosecutor and a federal magistrate.   Sadly, there are only two private lawyers.  

Each interview will last 25 minutes in the Judge's conference room in the Ferguson building.  Interviews are open to the public, so please let me know if you'd like to guest blog the interviews.  The JNC has invoked "the Rule" so applicants aren't permitted to watch other applicants.

Here is the list:

Martin J. Bidwell
Beatrice A. Butchko
Jeffrey J. Colbath
Mary Barzee Flores
David A. Haimes
Migna Sanchez-Llorens
Peter R. Lopez
Thomas Rebull
Meenu Sasser
Barry S. Seltzer
Edward N. Stamm
John W. Thornton, Jr.
Daryl E. Trawick
Jack Tuter
Melissa Damian Visconti

BREAKING -- Robin Rosenberg being vetted for Ft. Pierce slot

This was the seat that was slated for William Thomas, but now the White House is vetting Robin Rosenberg.  She was one of the three finalists for this seat back in 2012.  One of the comments about Judge Rosenberg back then was:

Rosenberg is a Princeton grad and Duke Law grad. She clerked for the late S.D. Fla. District Judge James C. Paine and worked at DOJ in the Civil Rights Division. She was General Counsel at Slim Fast before the company sold and a partner at H&K. She's received strong evaluations in the bar poll in PBC since taking the bench 6 years ago. She is highly qualified to serve on the federal bench and within driving distance to Fort Pierce. Kudos to the JNC.

This piece, by Grier Pressly, gives a little more background:

Judge Robin Rosenberg brought her local roots and a uniquely diverse legal career to the bench when she was sworn in as one of our newest circuit judges on January 2, 2007. Government practice at the national and local level. Private practice in a big firm and a small firm. Corporate general counsel and executive leadership. Judge Rosenberg has done it all in a remarkably short period of time.
Born and raised in West Palm Beach, Judge Rosenberg attended the Palm Beach Day School and was a state-ranked junior tennis player before attending Andover for high school. Following her graduation from Princeton University, where she captained the women’s tennis team, Judge Rosenberg headed to Washington, D.C. where she worked for the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice, Princeton’s Office of University Affairs, and as a legislative correspondent to Senator Bill Bradley.
After three years in Washington, Judge Rosenberg decided that a career in law and public service was her calling. In 1989 Judge Rosenberg graduated with a law degree from Duke University’s School of Law and a M.A. degree in public policy from Duke’s Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. Judge Rosenberg’s first job out of law school was an enjoyable one- year clerkship with Judge James Paine of the U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach. Judge Rosenberg returned to Washington in 1990 to go to work for the U.S. Department of Justice.
It was at the Department of Justice that Judge Rosenberg gained her employment law background, serving as a trial attorney for the Employment Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division, and met her future husband. Michael McAuliffe was also working as a trial attorney with the Department of Justice (in the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division) in the early 1990′s.
Newly married in 1993, Judge Rosenberg and Michael moved to Pilsen, Czech Republic to support the Civic Education Project jointly sponsored by Yale University and Central European University. In Pilsen, Judge Rosenberg helped set up the graduate school of public administration at West Bohemia University while Michael helped establish only the country’s fourth law school at the same university.
After spending a rewarding, busy year in the Czech Republic, Judge Rosenberg and Michael returned to West Palm Beach to continue their legal careers and to raise their family.
Judge Rosenberg served as Assistant City Attorney for West Palm Beach for two years before going into private practice in the litigation department at Holland & Knight. Judge Rosenberg’s tenure as Vice President and General Counsel at Slim·Fast Foods Company provided the opportunity of executive experience and managing corporate issues involving virtually every area of the law.
In 2001, Judge Rosenberg and Michael went into practice together. At Rosenberg & McAuliffe, Judge Rosenberg focused her practice on employment litigation while also concentrating on her roles as a certified mediator and arbitrator with ARC Mediation, a business she co-founded. However, the tug to return to public service was too strong to ignore. Judge Rosenberg feels fortunate to have loved every step of her career, a career that she feels has prepared her well for the challenges that serving as a judge will bring. Judge Rosenberg wants the community to know that she is honored to serve as a judge of our circuit.
When Judge Rosenberg is not working, she can be found spending time with her parents and grandmother (who all still reside locally) and doing any number of outdoor activities with her husband and three children – Sydney (11), Madison (8) and Adin (6). Tennis, swimming, jogging, and biking, Judge Rosenberg tries to find time for outdoor activities seven days a week. While Judge Rosenberg enjoys hiking in the mountains with her family during summer vacations in Colorado, she is happy to leave the extreme climbing to Michael who has recently summitted Denali (Alaska) and Aconcagua (Chile).

Luckily, there won't be any confusion on the district bench with Judge Robin Rosenbaum as she is moving up to the Eleventh Circuit.

Congrats to Judge Rosenberg!

Wednesday News & Notes -- judicial nomination edition

1.  Lots of media coverage about the White House leaving Will Thomas' name off of the list of renominated judges.  Here's the HuffPost:

The White House has thrown in the towel in trying to confirm William Thomas to a federal court seat in Florida, signaling an end to a puzzling case of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) blocking his own judicial nominee.
In a pile of about 200 nominees President Barack Obama resubmitted to the Senate at the start of the year, Thomas was noticeably absent. An administration official confirmed Tuesday that his resubmission isn't coming.
"The nomination of Judge William Thomas was returned by the Senate and Senator Rubio has made his objection clear, so the President chose not to renominate him," the official told The Huffington Post.
Thomas would have made history, if confirmed, as the first openly gay black man to serve as a federal judge.
Rubio has been single-handedly blocking Thomas for months, despite recommending him to Obama in 2012 as a nominee to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Rubio indicated in September he would not submit his "blue slip" to the Senate Judiciary Committee -- a courtesy, but not a hard rule, honored in the committee that allows a home-state senator to advance or hold up a nominee. Florida's other senator, Bill Nelson (D), submitted his blue slip months ago.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, has hinted in the past that he would revisit the blue slip process if Republicans abuse it. Asked for his thoughts on the White House sinking Thomas' nomination after Rubio used the blue slip rule to block him, Leahy said only, "Let me find out about that one."
There's a particular urgency to filling this Florida judgeship, which has been vacant for more than 20 months. The court backlog is so bad that the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts has deemed it a “judicial emergency."
Rubio spokeswoman Brooke Sammon said Tuesday she had nothing new to say regarding why Rubio became so adamant about blocking Thomas. She pointed to a past comment on the senator's concerns with the nominee.
"The nomination of Judge Thomas has also been thoroughly reviewed, and Senator Rubio has determined that Thomas’s record on the state court raises serious concerns about his fitness for a lifetime federal appointment. Those concerns include questions about his judicial temperament and his willingness to impose appropriate criminal sentences, particularly in the two high-profile cases of Michele Traverso and Joel Lebron last year. After reviewing Thomas’s record, Senator Rubio cannot support moving forward with the nomination," Sammon said.
HuffPost previously reviewed materials provided by Rubio's office that outlined the senator's justification for sinking Thomas' nomination, and nothing egregious stood out in either of the two cases. Instead, Rubio appears to be critical of Thomas for being too lenient in one case and too emotional in the other.
Florida Democratic lawmakers say Rubio's opposition is political as he tries to win back support from tea party members after angering them by advocating comprehensive immigration reform in 2012. Rubio's name has also been floated as a potential 2016 presidential contender.
"Judge Thomas is a well-qualified jurist," Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) told HuffPost in the fall. "There is a serious underrepresentation of minorities on the bench and partisan obstructionism isn’t making it any better."

I'm not sure how the process works now.  Will the JNC reopen the interview process for that slot or will it send up the names it sent previously?

2.  Meantime, the Dems are not too happy with the President about the nominees in Georgia:

U.S. Rep. David Scott, D-Atlanta, has asked to testify against President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees for Georgia, another twist in a public dispute that pits Georgia’s Democratic members of Congress and civil rights community against the first black president’s White House.
Scott wrote a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., on Friday to request an appearance at a yet-to-be scheduled hearing on a slate of six Georgia nominees.
Democrats have complained of being shut out of negotiations between White House officials and Georgia’s Republican senators, who have the power to block committee consideration for home-state judicial nominees by “blue slip” custom enforced by Leahy. Democrats are upset that only one of the six nominees is a minority, that Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Michael Boggs voted to keep the 1956 version state flag – with its Confederate battle emblem -- when he was in the state Senate and that attorney Mark Cohen defended the state’s voter ID law (even though he did so on behalf of then Attorney General Thurbert Baker, a Democrat).
Wrote Scott:

“If confirmed, the federal bench in Georgia will not reflect the current demographics of the state for at least another generation.  There will soon be only one active African-American district court judge in Georgia.  In addition, the views of some of these nominees reflect the regressive politics of the past.  I want to share some very important and critical background information with the Committee before these nominations are considered.
“It is an abomination that these nominees for lifetime appointment were drafted in secret, not vetted by any legal groups among the President’s supporters, and announced on a holiday weekend. We must not allow lifetime appointed judges to be rammed through the hearing process without sufficient input from the people who will be affected by their future judicial actions.”

 3.  There's also an opening in Alabama:

Civil rights advocates are encouraging President Barack Obama to nominate an African-American to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which would be a first from Alabama.
The high-level court, one step below the U.S. Supreme Court, has had only two black judges in its history, both from Florida.
The latest opening — created when Judge Joel Dubina of Montgomery took semi-retirement in October — will be the first chance a Democratic president has had to appoint someone from Alabama to the 11th Circuit, which was created in 1981.
Race is a significant issue for the Deep South circuit, which has a combined black population of about 7.2 million. The 11th Circuit hears appeals from Florida, Georgia and Alabama, and is a source of many high-profile discrimination cases involving voting, employment and redistricting.
Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, is the lone black member of Alabama’s congressional delegation and said diversity should be a priority.
“I think now is not the time to falter on the president’s commitment to diversifying the bench, and that is especially true on the 11th Circuit,” Sewell said Tuesday. “Alabama has some very talented African-American lawyers who should be considered.”
And U.W. Clemon, Alabama’s first black federal judge who is now in private practice in Birmingham, is also hoping for a black nominee.
“It would be historic,” Clemon said.
The Alabama Democratic Party and an advisory committee to Sewell have interviewed several black candidates for the 11th Circuit job, and many of their names have been forwarded to the White House for consideration.

Best posts of 2013

By far the post with the most hits this year was "Local AUSA Mike Garofola to be on The Bachelorette," (with over 20,000 hits) followed by "Go, Dore, Go" (which was about his novel motion to compel NSA records, with almost 15,000).  Make your own conclusions about the readership... 

But before you do, know that other top hit posts were mostly the scoops regarding JNC lists, judges, and magistrates --  including Robin Rosenbaum being vetted for the 11th Circuit seat and the Rubio/Thomas blue slip controversy.  With these posts in particular (of the almost 2,500 in total), the blog was able to fulfill its mission of getting District news out quickly and accurately to the local federal court family.  

  

Wednesday News & Notes

1.  The blog broke the news yesterday of the 4 nominees from the JNC for the federal bench.  Two of these nominees will be selected as our next federal judges:

Beth Bloom, Darrin Gayles, Peter Lopez, John Thornton

2.  Meantime, Judge Will Thomas' nomination is still being held up by Sen. Marco Rubio.  A rally on his behalf was held this morning at the federal courthouse.

3.  Claudio Osorio was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison.

4.   "Grotesque prosecutorial misconduct" leads to a new trial.  This time it's from New Orleans.  Via CNN:

Jury selection was minutes away for five ex-New Orleans police officers accused of shooting unarmed civilians after Hurricane Katrina when a commenter ripped into the defendants on a newspaper website.

"NONE of these guys should had have [sic] ever been given a badge," the commenter, identified only as "legacyusa," wrote. "We should research how they got on the police department, who trained them, who supervised them and why were they ever been promoted. You put crap in -- you get crap out!!!"

"Legacyusa" turned out to be one of the top federal prosecutors in New Orleans. His post was just one of many anonymous barbs that led a federal judge Tuesday to throw out the convictions of those ex-cops in the Danziger Bridge shootings, which left two people dead and four seriously wounded.

In a 129-page ruling, District Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt cited long list of "egregious and inflammatory" comments by at least three Justice Department officials using a variety of online identities. Those comments fueled a "21st century carnival atmosphere" that tainted the 2011 trial and will require a new one, Engelhardt wrote.

"This case started as one featuring allegations of brazen abuse of authority, violation of the law and corruption of the criminal justice system; unfortunately, though the focus has switched from the accused to the accusers, it has continued to be about those very issues," the order states. "After much reflection, the court cannot journey as far as it has in this case only to ironically accept grotesque prosecutorial misconduct in the end."

In a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, the Justice Department said, "We are disappointed with the court's ruling. We are reviewing the decision and considering our options."

  
 Seems like a strange reaction from DOJ.  Why do they defense misconduct?

5.   Locally, bond was denied this morning in a case involving Iran, uranium, African mines, and ICE.  From Curt Anderson:

A West African man was ordered jailed Thursday until trial on U.S. charges that he attempted to broker an illegal deal to ship tons of uranium ore from Sierra Leone to Iran, including a trip to the U.S. with uranium ore samples concealed in shoes inside his luggage.
Patrick Campbell, 33, faces a maximum of 20 years behind bars and up to $1 million in fines if convicted of attempting to violate the U.S. embargo against Iran. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement affidavit filed in federal court says Campbell claimed he could supply enough ore — commonly known as yellowcake — to yield 1,000 tons of purified uranium that could be used for nuclear fuel or weapons.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Seltzer agreed with prosecutors at a hearing that Campbell should not be released on bail, although a trial date has not been set. Campbell is scheduled to enter a plea next week.

Breaking -- JNC cuts list to 4

Your next two federal district judges will be from this list:

Beth Bloom, Darrin Gayles, Peter Lopez, John Thornton

Congrats!!

Interesting to note that all four are sitting state judges in Circuit Court.

Judge happenings

Interesting news out of Atlanta regarding negotiations over judgeships for the 11th Circuit and the district seat.  From Robin McDonald's article:

Georgia's Republican U.S. senators have cut a deal with state Democrats that, if approved by the White House, would fill six judgeships on Atlanta's federal appeals and district court benches, Georgia lawyers familiar with the nomination process have told the Daily Report.
The package deal would remove roadblocks thrown up by Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson that have held up the confirmation of Atlanta attorney Jill Pryor, a partner at Bondurant Mixson & Elmore, for the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Pryor was nominated in February 2012.
The deal also recommends the elevation to the Eleventh Circuit of U.S. District Court Chief Judge Julie Carnes of the Northern District of Georgia. Carnes was appointed to her current post by President George H.W. Bush in 1992.
Carnes' move would create a fourth vacancy on the district court in Atlanta, where judges who left in 2009, 2010 and this year have yet to be replaced.
The new bargain includes the nomination of Leigh Martin May, a personal injury and product liability attorney at Butler Wooten & Fryhofer, for the Northern District bench. May was on a 2009 list of potential nominees that was sent to the White House by a committee appointed by members of Georgia's Democratic congressional delegation; May's law partner, James Butler, was a member of that committee. Chambliss and Isakson initially rejected May and others as nominees.
In return for their agreement not to block the nominations of Pryor and May, Chambliss and Isakson would name candidates to the other three district court vacancies. They include Troutman Sanders partner Mark Cohen, whose name the senators put forth first in 2010 for the Northern District bench and in 2011 for the Eleventh Circuit. Their remaining two picks are two state court judges appointed by Republican Governor Nathan Deal—DeKalb County State Court Judge Eleanor Ross and Judge Michael Boggs of the Georgia Court of Appeals.

Meantime, the JNC has cut the list for district judge in the Middle District.  Now it's up to the Senators to pick from these four:  

Paul Byron, Bill Jung, Carlos Mendoza, Waddell Wallace