Obama nominates Judge Bill Pryor to Sentencing Commission

From the Montgomery Advertiser:

President Barack Obama nominated former Alabama attorney general and current U.S. circuit judge Bill Pryor to be a commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the White House announced Monday evening.
Pryor, who served as attorney general from 1997 to 2004, serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. President George W. Bush appointed Pryor to the federal bench in 2004.
The sentencing commission, according to its website, is an independent agency within the judicial branch that was set up to establish guidelines and practices for sentencing in federal courts, to assist Congress in developing policy related to crime, and to analyze and research issues related to federal crime and sentencing.
Pryor would serve a term that expires Oct. 31, 2017, and would replace commissioner William B. Carr, whose term has expired.
Obama also intends to nominate Rachel Elise Barkow, the Segal Family Professor of Regulatory Law and Policy at the New York University School of Law, and U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of the Northern District of California to the sentencing commission, according to the White House.

Michael Caruso stepping up

The blog previously covered how sequestration was forcing the federal defenders to be furloughed every Friday for the rest of the year, resulting in a 20% pay cut.  Really horrible.  The Sun-Sentinel has picked up the story and discusses how the bosses at the FPD's office are really stepping up:

They say good bosses never ask employees to do something they wouldn't do themselves – even in a federal budget crisis.
The sequester has forced the Federal Public Defender's Office to close on Fridays because of employee furloughs.
But low-income people still get arrested, so the top boss in the office – the appointed Federal Public Defender Michael Caruso – has been personally handling Friday magistrate court duty in Miami while supervisors Robert Berube and Peter Birch represent inmates in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

Congrats to Chief Judge Moreno

The Notre Dame Law Association has awarded Chief Judge Federico Moreno with its St. Thomas More award:

The Notre Dame Law Association will award the St. Thomas More Award to the Hon. Federico A. Moreno (A.B. ’74) on April 12, 2013.

Judge Moreno was born in 1952 in Venezuela, and received his A.B. from Notre Dame, cum laude, in 1974. After graduation, he worked briefly as a teacher and then attended the University of Miami Law School, from which he received his J.D. in 1978.After law school, Judge Moreno was in private practice, and served indigent clients while employed by the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Miami. In 1986, Judge Moreno was appointed to the Dade County Court bench and then to the Circuit Court a year later. President George H. W. Bush appointed Judge Moreno in 1990 to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. He currently serves as Chief Judge for one of the largest federal courts in the country.

Judge Moreno served on the boards of Legal Services of Greater Miami, the Cuban American Bar Association’s Pro Bono Program, and the United Way. He received the Pro Bono Service Award of the Cuban American Bar Association and the United Way’s “People Helping People” Award. His activities also include the membership in the Notre Dame Club of Miami and the University of Miami Law School Alumni, of which he was a Director.

Federico Moreno has been married for 35 years to his wife, Cris. They have three children: Cristi, who graduated from Notre Dame Law School and is currently an Assistant U.S. Attorney; Ricki, who graduated from Notre Dame with a degree in accounting and received his MBA from Wharton; and Victoria, who is in her senior year at Notre Dame.

The St. Thomas More Award honors graduates of the University of Notre Dame “who have distinguished themselves as jurists or public servants, while exhibiting uncompromising integrity and loyalty to conscience.”

Since instituted by the Notre Dame Law Association in 2000, the award has been presented two other times: to Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., in 2004, and to Dean Patricia A. O’Hara in 2009.

  

Congrats!

Thursday news & notes

1.  While one prosecutor is appearing on The Bachelorette, another is writing op-eds for the Wall Street Journal saying that the feds should have the right to search everything, including your computer and phone, are the border.  I'll leave it to you all to decide which is worse. 

2.  Sri to the Supremes? (via the New Yorker)

3. Seems unlikely because Obama is still not doing a good job with his judicial appointments.  How long has Will Thomas been waiting now?  (via NY Times)

Of 856 federal district and circuit court seats, 85 are unfilled — a 10 percent vacancy rate and nearly double the rate at this point in the presidency ofGeorge W. Bush. More than a third of the vacancies have been declared “judicial emergencies” based on court workloads and the length of time the seats have been empty. By far the most important cause of this unfortunate state of affairs is the determination of Senate Republicans, for reasons of politics, ideology and spite, to confirm as few ofPresident Obama’s judicial choices as possible.

Numbers compiled by the Senate Judiciary Committee tell the story. Mr. Obama’s nominees for seats on federal courts of appeal, the system’s top tier below the Supreme Court, have waited an average of 148 days for their confirmation vote following the committee’s approval, more than four times longer than Mr. Bush’s nominees. For Mr. Obama’s nominees to federal district courts, the average wait time has been 102 days, compared with 35 days for Mr. Bush’s district court choices.

4.  Too many lawyers in Miami.  Bennett County, South Dakota, not so much.  (via the NY Times)

5.  The Federal PD in Columbus, Ohio is resigning because of sequestration.  It's getting really bad.  (via NPR)

6.  Meantime, the DOJ is spending like crazy.  (via Politico)

Looking good for Hollywood: Tax dollars are also used at the department to help the entertainment industry. The FBI has its own Investigative Publicity and Public Affairs Unit, which is dedicated to helping Hollywood make movies and TV shows, including “The Kingdom,” “Fast and Furious 4,” “CSI,” “Numb3rs” and “Without a Trace.” This perk for Hollywood comes with an annual price tag of $1.5 million to the American taxpayer.
Meet and greets: In addition, the DOJ staff hosted numerous conferences around the country. In 2010 alone, the department spent nearly $100 million on conferences, which is twice what was spent two years earlier. This includes more than $600,000 in event-planner costs for five conferences, even though the need for this was not shown.

7.  According to this article by ProPublica, no one is policing prosecutorial misconduct, so it appears unlikely that they will care about the above spending.

8.  Finally, Justice Thomas said he didn't know it was news when he spoke at an oral argument recently.  Do you believe him?  (via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Clarence Thomas, the U.S. Supreme Court justice who has become known for his silence from the bench during oral arguments, made national news a few months ago when he spoke, briefly.
So, on Tuesday, when he visited Duquesne University to speak, expansively, a law school student asked the obvious question -- what was Justice Thomas' philosophy about the role of justices in oral arguments?
"Well, first of all, my philosophy about the news is never watching it," Justice Thomas said, to applause and laughter, adding that it was the first he'd heard of the widespread notice given to the moment when, with just a few words, he broke his self-imposed seven-year silence during oral arguments.

Breaking -- Alicia Valle is your new Magistrate

Congrats to all around nice person and long time spokeswoman at the U.S. Attorney's Office Alicia Valle, who will be a great judge. 

I found this bio of her online:

Alicia Olivera Valle has been the Special Counsel to the United States Attorney, Southern District of Florida, since May 2005.  In this capacity, Ms. Valle handles special case-related and other projects and all media for the U.S. Attorney.  Since joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 1987, she has successfully prosecuted various high-profile public corruption and white-collar criminal cases in New Jersey and Florida, including cases against the Mayor of Parsippany, the former Manager and Chief of Police for the City of Miami, and the President of the Miami-Dade teacher’s union, all on corruption charges.  During her tenure at the Miami U.S. Attorney’s Office, Ms. Valle has served as Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney, twice Chief of the Economic Crimes Section, and until her promotion to Special Counsel in 2005, as Chief of the Public Corruption Section.  Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Ms. Valle clerked for the Honorable Stewart G. Pollock of the Supreme Court of New Jersey.  She was also an associate with the law firm of Clapp & Eisenberg in Newark, New Jersey.  Ms. Valle received her undergraduate degree from Rutgers University and law degree from Harvard Law School.

Congrats again!