BREAKING -- William Thomas being vetted for Federal Judgeship

That's been the talk of the town for the past few weeks, but now FBI agents and ABA officials are doing their background on Judge Thomas and the secret is out.

This is fantastic news -- Will Thomas is a great judge and person.  He enjoys a very strong reputation as a trial judge in state court where he has handled both criminal and civil cases.  He also has a federal background having worked at the Federal Public Defender's Office.

Judge Thomas is known as a hard worker, sometimes trying cases late into the night.  And he is known as fair, calling cases right down the middle.  Both sides respect him and he'll make a great federal judge.

Now the only question is timing.  With the election around the corner, will Judge Thomas be nominated and confirmed before the end of the year?  I really hope so.

"Only Supreme Court justices and schoolchildren are expected to and do take the entire summer off.”

That was Chief Justice John Roberts when we he was an attorney in the Reagan adminstration.

Slate has an article today asking whether the Supreme Court really should be taking the summer off:

Either way, the summer recess comes with some significant costs. Because the justices do not meet to decide whether to grant or deny review in cases during the summer months, thousands of legal petitions pile up during their absence. The court plows through this backlog at their first conference (aptly referred to as the “long conference”) in the last week of September. But they obviously cannot give these petitions the same consideration as those that arrive later in the term. (For this reason, savvy appellate attorneys know that it is best to avoid filing petitions over the summer if they can.)

The impending summer recess can also force the court to rush decisions without taking the time to articulate their reasoning, as at least one scholar argues occurred in the Pentagon Papers case—a momentous case with serious national security implications that was decided in a three-paragraph, unsigned opinion in late June. The summer break was behind the timing of this past term’s health care decision. As was widely reported, a decision had to be made by the end of June because of Chief Justice Roberts’ Malta trip in the first week of July.

When pressing issues arise during the recess, the matter is often handled by a single justice “in chambers” who must make important decisions about whether to grant stays, injunctions, or extensions without consulting with his or her absent colleagues. For example, Justice William Douglas issued an “in chambers” order in August 1973, which put a stop to military operations in Cambodia. He explained that he would normally have referred this question to the full court, but the summer recess made that “impossible.”

The three-month break is particularly galling at a time when the Supreme Court decides fewer cases than any other court in modern times. In recent years, the court has heard an average of about 80 cases a term, which is half the number they heard 20 years ago and makes up fewer than 1 percent of the approximately 10,000 review petitions they receive. The rest of the federal judiciary does not get the same extended summer vacation, and they handle a great deal more cases. It is also a little disconcerting that many of the justices use the time off to generate outside income. Shouldn’t their time be filled by the job they are paid (by all of us year-round working taxpayers) to do?

Cool montage

C-SPAN has put together a short string of clips of every presidential candidate since 1984 accept the nomination.  Is Al Gore impersonating a robot?

Tuesday Court update-- Miami and FtL open; Key West, WPB, Ft Pierce closed.

August 27, 2012 - 7:00 pm
In light of the announced reopening of public schools in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, the United States District Court in Miami and Fort Lauderdale will reopen on Tuesday, August 28, 2012, including Bankruptcy and Probation. The Key West, West Palm Beach and Fort Pierce federal courthouses will be closed on Tuesday, August 28, 2012, as the Monroe, Palm Beach and St. Lucie Counties Public Schools have announced they will be closed. The Key West, West Palm Beach and Fort Pierce federal courthouses will reopen when the school systems in those counties reopen or upon further order of Chief Judge Federico A. Moreno.

Judge Fay is working today

He just issued this opinion (which was joined by Judge Jordan).  This is the funny intro: "On July 23, 2009, Connie Strickland had been 'working on the railroad / All the live-long day.'" And here is the citation from the opinion: "A popular American folk song, the first published version of 'I’ve Been Working on the Railroad' seems to have been in a 1894 Princeton University songbook. See James J. Fuld, The Book of World-Famous Music 309 (Dover, 4th ed. 1996)."