Bueller? Bueller?

Should be an interesting few days in mag court... About 80 people were arrested for Medicare fraud over the last few days, and the PDs and CJA lawyers are having their annual conference in Naples. The PD's office always leaves behind an emergency lawyer, who is going to be very very busy. I wonder who drew the short straw this time. 

"Sometimes running a district court can be like a high-wire balancing act. But when it comes to ensuring the competence of defendants when they go to trial or plead guilty, the court takes on the role of a safety net."

That was Judge Rosenbaum today for a unanimous 11th Circuit in United States v. Wingo.  The rest of the intro is also really well done:

Sometimes running a district court can be like a high-wire balancing act. But when it comes to ensuring the competence of defendants when they go to trial or plead guilty, the court takes on the role of a safety net.
Our criminal-justice system depends on the exercise of, or knowing and intelligent waivers of, constitutional rights. But to engage in these activities, a defendant must first and necessarily have the abilities to understand the proceedings and to assist counsel. Because competence is the base upon which other constitutional rights balance, due process and Section 4241(a) of Title 18 of the United States Code demand that a hearing on a defendant’s competence be held whenever reasonable cause exists to believe that a defendant may not be competent to proceed to trial or to enter a guilty plea.
Here, no hearing occurred, despite evidence creating reasonable cause to believe that Appellant Andrew Wingo might not have been competent to proceed. We therefore hold that the district court did not satisfy its duty under 18 U.S.C. § 4241(a). We remand this case to the district court so that it can determine whether Wingo’s competency at the time of his guilty plea can be evaluated nunc pro tunc, and if so, for an assessment of his competency at the time of his guilty plea and sentencing. If Wingo is determined to have been incompetent, or if a nunc pro tunc evaluation cannot be made, Wingo’s conviction and sentence must be vacated, subject to the government’s right to try him should he become competent. On the other hand, if Wingo is determined to have been competent, his conviction and sentence must be affirmed.

Meantime, Justice Scalia referred to Justice Ginsburg as Justice Goldberg.  WHOOPS.

While delivering the decision in the immigration case Kerry v. Din on Monday, Scalia listed the justices who dissented from the opinion and, instead of saying “Ginsburg,” said “Goldberg.”

Chief Justice John Roberts leaned over and whispered in his ear, to presumably notify him of the error.

“What did I say?” he asked Roberts, drawing laughter from spectators and members of the press in the courtroom.

After his colleagues told him what he said, Scalia shook his head and apologized to Ginsburg.

“Sorry about that Ruth,” he said.

Scalia was of course quick to joke when Joe Klock famously messed up a bunch of names before the Supreme Court:

Arguing a case before the Supreme Court is a dream for many lawyers, a chance to shine before the nation’s highest court. But it seems attorney Joseph Klock could use a little more polish.

Klock, representing Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, stumbled responding to questions during the Bush vs. Gore case Monday morning, twice referring to justices by the wrong name.

First, Klock surprised everyone in the courtroom by referring to Justice John Paul Stevens as “Justice Brennan,” apparently referring to Justice William Brennan, who retired from the Supreme Court in 1990 and died in 1997.

“I was so tired that I was happy I didn’t call one of them Justice Gore,” Klock told Good Morning America today. “And I’m not really very good with names.”

And after his first mix-up Monday, Klock referred to David Souter as “Justice Breyer,” referring to another of the court’s justices, Stephen Breyer.

“I’m Justice Souter,” came the reply from the bench. “You’d better give that up.”

Then Justice Antonin Scalia got into the act, drawing a roar of laughter from the gallery by beginning his next question, “Mr. Klock, I’m Scalia.”

Enjoy:

Judge Huck's Federal Court Observer Program

It's become a big hit -- a capacity crowd on Friday for interns, law clerks, and young associates.  Here's a picture from the panel of judges (Huck, Jordan,Scola & Valle):

You should get on over to SCOTUSBlog for new opinions this morning.  The Term is just about over....

After that, you should grab a drink at lunch today.  That's what Justice Stevens (age 95) says to do!  From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Over the next 35 years, Stevens rendered more than 1,400 opinions in a career that defies summation, at least here.  He was liberal and, as such, his beliefs could actually mature and change. Williams highlighted the evolution of Stevens’ thought regarding death penalty, from finding it constitutional in Gregg V. Georgia in 1976, to  deeming it “cruel and unusual” — and thus banned by the Constitution — for people with mental handicaps in Atkins v. Virginia in 2002, to finding it morally wrong altogether in Baze v. Rees in 2008.

“The penalty really does not fit in our society anymore,’ Stevens said.

His advice to young lawyers ranged from the value of studying poetry — which he found “extremely valuable” on the bench because “it helped me in my work as a judge” — to the best way to counteract a bad day: “drink at lunch” (advice he couldn’t have taken too often, or he wouldn’t have made it to 95).

I'll certainly need one after that Game of Thrones last night.  

So you wanna be a judge?

Well, there are three openings -- two in the Middle District and one in the Northern District.  This notice went up today on the court's website, seeking applications for judge (due August 3). 

There is also a new slate of JNC members (see here).

And new JNC rules.

Melgen still being held

Apparently he can't get a letter from the Dominican Republic that they will extradite him to the U.S.  This all seems over the top to me.  A judge in New Jersey let him bond out without such a letter.  He knew about the investigation for many years and traveled back and for to the DR and always came back. What are we doing here?

In other news, a few judges had a smooth hearing with the judiciary committee yesterday.  It's very slow going... Hopefully Mary Barzee Flores will be up soon.

Still waiting on the Supreme Court to finish up the Term.  Linda Greenhouse talks about it.

American Pharoah’s stretch run in the Belmont Stakes was a beauty to behold. The Supreme Court’s stretch run in the closing weeks of its term? Not so much.

I can’t remember a second week in June during which the justices delivered only one opinion. This was Monday’s decision upholding the president’s prerogative in the Jerusalem passport case, Zivotofsky v. Kerry, issued more than seven months after the argument. At that pace, it would be Thanksgiving before the court issued its decision in the same-sex marriage cases that it heard at the end of April. But that won’t happen; one way or another, with 20 cases left to decide, the court will wrap up its term before the Fourth of July.

The justices’ silence doesn’t mean indolence, of course; a great deal is happening below the surface and behind closed doors. For example, it’s obvious that there is a struggle going on over whether the court should revisit Fisher v. University of Texas, which affirmative-action opponents have dragged back onto the court’s docket for another try at using this thoroughly moot case as a battering ram against considering race as a factor in college admissions. On Thursday the case goes to the justices’ closed-door conference for a fourth week. If the justices eventually deny the appeal, or even if they decide to hear it, we may never know what arguments were on the table during those weeks.

So we can thank Justice Clarence Thomas for pulling back the curtain a bit this week when he issued a public dissent from the court’s refusal to hear a challenge to a San Francisco gun control ordinance. This case, Jackson v. City and County of San Francisco, went to conference six times before the court issued an order on Monday denying review. Even without Justice Thomas’s dissenting opinion, which only Justice Antonin Scalia joined, it would have been obvious that something was afoot, but we wouldn’t have known exactly what.

And the 11th Circuit just granted a state habeas for a potential Miranda violation.  Enjoy the read.