Congrats to Judge Lauren Louis

The investiture of Magistrate Judge Lauren Louis was wonderful. She gave a heartfelt speech that was one of the best investiture talks I have seen. It's easy to see that she will be a great judge. Congrats!

News & Notes

1.  Gorsuch is channeling his inner-Scalia.  The opinion is Dimaya v. Sessions.  District judges should get ready for the ensuing litigation.  It shows again that the trial and appellate courts are so law-and-rder conservative with its rulings that it takes a slightly less conservative Supreme Court to stop the get-away conviction train every now and then. This time it took Justice Gorsuch. From SCOTUSBlog:

Gorsuch concurred in part and concurred in the judgment. He emphasized at the outset that “[v]ague laws invite arbitrary power.” He defended the originalist foundations for vagueness challenges that Justice Clarence Thomas questioned at length in his dissent, tracing the history of those challenges back to Blackstone’s condemnation of vague statutes and the “tradition of courts refusing to apply vague statutes.” He further noted that the concern with vague statutes was not “confined to the most serious offenses like capital crimes.” Addressing the government’s argument that a more lenient standard of review should apply in civil cases, Gorsuch would have gone even further than the plurality. He suggested that provisions of civil laws should be scrutinized closely for vagueness even outside the deportation context: “Why, for example, would due process require Congress to speak more clearly when it seeks to deport a lawfully resident alien than when it wishes to subject a citizen to indefinite civil commitment, strip him of a business license essential to his family’s living, or confiscate his home?”

2.  Sotomayor broke her shoulder.

3.  RIP Harry Anderson.  When I was growing up, I thought that every judge should be like him (with a little Judge Wapner).  He was the best.  From the LA Times:

"Night Court" and "Dave's World" star Harry Anderson received a tip of the hat from costars and fellow magicians sending out heartfelt tributes to the late sitcom star.

The actor, who died on Monday at age 65, began his lengthy career in stand-up and magic, then notably played judge Harry T. Stone on the Emmy-winning NBC sitcom "Night Court."

Costar John B. Larroquette and several others fondly remembered the actor — and his iconic fedora — with messages honoring Anderson's memory.

"He was wicked smart. He was wicked funny. He had a big laugh. He had a big heart. He delighted in legerdemain especially when he caused someone to scratch their head and proclaim; How the hell did you do that? And he could eat a hamster like no one I ever knew," the actor tweeted late Monday, describing their work on the show as "a carnival fun ride with Harry."

How should we handle attorney-client privilege?

Alan Dershowitz has this proposal:

There is a better and safer way to deal with this issue than the current approach of using prosecutors and FBI agents to do the sifting. A law should be enacted under which anytime the government is seeking to search an office or home that may contain confidential and privileged information, the search team must be accompanied by a judicial officer – a judge, a magistrate or someone appointed to fulfill that function.
That judicial officer should be the only one ever to read material that is eventually deemed to be confidential. A judge can be trusted not to leak far better than FBI agents or prosecutors. And if a judge were to leak, it would be easy to identify the source of the unlawful disclosure, since the single judge would be the only one to have access to the confidential material.

And Trump's lawyers have filed papers this weekend asking to do an initial review before the government gets a chance.  Here's the WSJ coverage:

Lawyers for President Donald Trump say they should be allowed to review the material seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation last week from Mr. Trump’s longtime lawyer Michael Cohen before government investigators begin their ​own, according to a court filing late Sunday.
The filing asks​ a Manhattan federal judge to stop the government from using a “taint team” of prosecutors to review the evidence for documents protected by attorney-client privilege and to issue an order allowing Mr. Cohen, Mr. Trump and their legal teams to comb through it first for “materials over which the President asserts privilege.”
After Mr. Trump identifies which communications he believes are privileged, the government taint team can make objections, the filing said, and the court can make the final determination about which materials investigators are allowed to see.

 Trump won't be at the hearing today.  He's in Miami.  Here's how to avoid the traffic.

SDFLA Judges appoint Ben Greenberg as U.S. Attorney

Attorney General Sessions appointed Ben Greenberg as U.S. Attorney, but that appointment expires on April 28.  The President still has not nominated a U.S. Attorney for this District.  So under 28 U.S.C. 546(d), the judges appointed Greenberg "until further Order of th[e] Court."

Two federal judges nominated in Florida, but not the SDFLA

But we did get a Marshal:

 If confirmed, Gadyaces S. Serralta of Florida will serve as the United States Marshal for the Southern District of Florida.  Gadyaces Serralta is currently a Major with the Miami-Dade Police Department, a position he has held since 2015.  In this capacity, he also serves as the Commander of the Palmetto Bay Policing Unit. Mr. Serralta began his law enforcement career with the Miami-Dade Police Department in 1990.  He served as a patrol officer and sergeant, working primarily with the Criminal Street Gangs Unit and Organized Crime Section, and then served as lieutenant in charge of the Robbery Intervention and Narcotics Detail before assuming his current position as Major. Mr. Serralta earned a B.S. in Criminal Justice Studies from Florida International University and a M.S. in Leadership from Nova Southeastern University.

Here are the two judicial nominees from the Middle and Northern Districts:

If confirmed, Wendy Williams Berger of Florida will serve as a District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.  Wendy Berger serves as a District Judge on the Fifth District Court of Appeal, where she has served since her appointment by the Governor in 2012. Prior to her elevation to the Court of Appeal, Judge Berger served for seven years as a Circuit Court Judge on the Seventh Judicial Circuit, where she handled the full range of civil, criminal, and death penalty cases. Before ascending to the bench, Judge Berger served for four years as Assistant General Counsel in the Executive Office of the Governor. Prior to joining the Governor's Office, Judge Berger spent seven years prosecuting criminal cases as an Assistant State Attorney. Judge Berger earned her B.S., cum laude, from Florida State University and her J.D. from the Florida State University College of Law, where she was a member of the Florida State University Law Review.

If confirmed, Allen C. Winsor of Florida will serve as a District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.  Allen Winsor serves as a Judge on the First District Court of Appeal. Prior to his appointment to the bench, Mr. Winsor served for nearly three years as the Solicitor General of the State of Florida, where he represented Florida's interests in State and Federal courts and argued two cases in the Supreme Court of the United States. Before joining the Florida Attorney General's Office, Mr. Winsor was a partner in the Tallahassee office of GrayRobinson, P.A., where he practiced civil, constitutional, and appellate litigation. Upon graduation from law school, Mr. Winsor served as a law clerk to Judge Ed Carnes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Mr. Winsor earned his B.S.B.A. from Auburn University and his J.D., with high honors, from the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, where he was inducted into the Order of the Coif and served as editor-in-chief of the Florida Law Review.