Secret Dockets

It looks like the controversy of secret dockets is becoming part of the federal judicial landscape. Jurist.law.pitt.edu has an interesting article on the issue and explains that there has been a “sharp increase” in secret proceedings in U.S. federal courts. More than five thousand criminal defendants have had their case records sealed, that is more than five times the number from 2003. Hidden federal dockets, where the existence of the case is not disclosed, is also on the rise. Interestingly, as many readers already know, the Eleventh Circuit ruled that secret dockets were unconstitutional in United States v. Ochoa. Are secret dockets the trend of the future?

Blog press

Florida Trend has an article about Florida legal blogs by Cynthia Barnett and mentions SDFLA.

(I'm home for the weekend, and then back to Savannah for trial on Monday. We've zoomed through 50 witnesses. Another 100 to go...)

Judicial Retirement

Magistrate Judge Hugh J. Morgan announced his retirement today. Judge Morgan has served six terms and has been on the bench for almost 25 years. He was the only magistrate to sit in the Florida Keys thus raising questions about whether he will be replaced or the part-time mag position in Key West will be gone forever. Anyone with inside information on what will likely happen feel free to comment.

A Bridge to Freedom?

Judge Moreno issued a landmark decision finding that 15 repatriated Cubans were removed to Cuba illegally insofar as the Coast Guard's decision to remove the refugees "was not a reasonable interpretation of present executive policy." This case highlights the debate about the "wet-foot, dry-foot policy" that allows Cubans to remain in the United States if they reach land. Cuban refugees had reached the old, unused Seven Mile Bridge but the Coast Guard determined that the bridge had been abandoned and that the Cuban refugees had not reached dry land in the United States. Judge Moreno disagreed.

The question of the day is whether Fidel Castro will allow these Cubans to return to the United States...

Read more from today's Miami Herald

It's official...

... the FDC-Miami officials have lost their marbles.

Check out the DBR article today (another Julie Kay special) about the new dress code at the prison -- FOR LAWYERS. Here's the intro:

Going to visit a client in the Federal Detention Center in Miami? Better make sure you’re wearing a conservative suit, and whatever you do, don’t wear gray slacks and a blue blazer. In recent weeks, the FDC has begun cracking down on villainous lawyers who wear nonmatching pants and blazers, gray pants and blue blazers and even khaki pants. And women who wear skirts above the knee or with slits are reportedly being turned away, too. Miami lawyer Bruce Alter said in a phone message he was turned away from the FDC last week for wearing khaki pants, as was Darryl Wilcox, an assistant federal public defender, who was wearing gray pants, a white shirt, red tie and blue blazer. “I was wearing the standard out-of-court outfit,” Wilcox said. “They told me it was too similar to what the Bureau of Prisons guards wear.” While Wilcox was not allowed to enter the jail, the public defender-hired translator was waiting inside with Wilcox’s client, who speaks only Spanish. Wilcox ended up returning to his Fort Lauderdale office without being able to see his client. “I was annoyed,” Wilcox said. “But I guess security is security.”