"Glacial slowness''

That's what Judge Alan Gold said about the EPA in a "blistering" order that accuses the agency of ignoring the judge's previous orders. From reporter Andy Reid:

U.S. District Judge Alan Gold in Miami blamed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for failing to heed his 2008 ruling that directed the agencies to enforce water-cleanup standards that were supposed to begin in 2006.
Instead, federal and state officials have opted for a 10-year extension to enforce tougher standards to clean up phosphorus in water that flows to the Everglades.
On Wednesday, Gold ordered the EPA and DEP to ``immediately carry out'' his previous mandates or face fines and sanctions for violating the federal Clean Water Act.
Gold also called out the South Florida Water Management District, which leads Everglades restoration. Gold said the district ``has chosen to ignore'' the court's call to enforce the water-quality standard.
``The hard reality is that ongoing destruction due to pollution within the Everglades Protection Area continues to this day at an alarming rate,'' Gold said in his ruling.

Gold isn't the only judge who is upset:

Gold became the second federal judge in recent weeks to raise concerns about the repercussions of the U.S. Sugar land deal on already-overdue Everglades restoration efforts.
U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno on March 31 ordered construction to resume on an Everglades restoration reservoir that had been shelved as the district tried to finalize the still-pending U.S. Sugar deal.
The unfinished reservoir in western Palm Beach County has already cost taxpayers almost $280 million.
The Miccosukee Tribe, which contends that Everglades restoration is off course, filed the legal challenges that led to both judges' rulings.
The tribe has also teamed with U.S. Sugar competitor Florida Crystals to wage a legal fight to try to stop the U.S. Sugar land deal.
They argue the deal threatens to take money from other restoration efforts, such as the reservoir, and would lead to further restoration delays.
"You are supposed to be cleaning up the water,'' Miccosukee attorney Dexter Lehtinen said. "They are abandoning the already existing plans. It's a deliberate ignoring of the requirements.''

He wanted to be a lawyer like his father, whom he admired and attempted to emulate.”

That was Mycki Ratzan in her sentencing memo for Kobie Gary. The sentencing was continued till this Friday because the DEA agent passed out under cross-examination by Jeff Weiner last week. The TCPalm covers the upcoming hearing and Kobie's background here:

In middle school, obese and hurting from a birth defect that “bowed” both legs, Kobie O. Gary was an ambitious student — determined to follow the path of his famed Stuart attorney father, Willie Gary.
***
Now, despite a “life-long dream” of attending law school, Gary’s defense attorneys admit his guilty plea in January to conspiracy to manufacture and distribute more than 100 marijuana plants has likely squelched that plan.
“Certainly this conviction ... could prevent him from getting a license to practice law,” Ratzan noted to U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore. Prosecutors have targeted Gary as the boss of a Hobe Sound marijuana grow house seized in October that netted 237 plants.

New names to consider for Justice Stevens' seat

Here's the report:

A federal judge from Montana and the dean of Harvard's law school are among several names being added to the short list of potential nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court, a government source said.
Sidney Thomas, a 14-year veteran on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, is being vetted by the White House, said the source, who has been regularly consulted in the selection process.
Two women who were not on other published lists of potential candidates are now being seriously considered.
Harvard Law school dean Martha Minow has been on the school's faculty since 1981. And Elizabeth Warren heads the Congressional Oversight Panel, which reviews government efforts to boost the shaky financial and private investment sector. Neither woman has judicial experience.
Sources close to the selection process said the new names represent an effort to expand what had been a short list of candidates, many of them left over after last year's court vacancy was filled by Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

I think Martha Minow would be fantastic. She was my law school advisor so I got to know her a little bit: she's smart, compassionate, and hard-working.

Comment policy

So, should we keep the comment policy the same? Right now, you can post anonymously, but I moderate the comments to keep the hateful stuff from going up. Here's a NY Times piece about some new ways of moderating comments...

In other news, apparently people are upset with the law school clinics out there. Seems silly to me, but Rick Bascuas beware...

I'm searching for something locally to write about, but these tips aren't helping much.

So, back to Justice Stevens stuff then. How about Hilary Clinton for Supreme Court Justice?

Monday morning monsoon

Traffic on US1



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Your afternoon funny

I didn't know that Guam had the chance of capsizing... Oy.

"My dear Mr. President"

That's how Justice John Paul Stevens, who turns 90 this month, addressed the letter to President Obama in his resignation letter of today. Here's the Washington Post article:

[H]e will leave the court at the conclusion of the current term at the end of June. Stevens said he was announcing now so that the president would have time to make a nomination and the Senate to confirm in time for the start of the court's new term next October.
It will be Obama's second Supreme Court appointment after Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was named last year to replace retiring Justice David Souter.
Stevens was appointed to the high court by President Gerald Ford, and joined the court on Dec. 19, 1975. His retirement is not a surprise and the White House has been preparing for the opening. Aides and Democrats close to the process name three people as likely frontrunners for the job: Solicitor General Elena Kagan, who Obama made the first woman to hold that post, and two appellate court judges, Diane Wood of Chicago and Merrick Garland of Washington.
Kagan and Wood were interviewed by Obama last spring before he nominated Sotomayor to the court.

Down goes ...

... the DEA agent.

Jeff Weiner's cross must have been pretty good in the Kobie Gary (Willie's son) case. Here's the press coverage of what happened:

After a day and a half in federal court, convicted pot grower Kobie O. Gary will have to wait another week to learn his fate after the lead DEA agent in the case fainted Thursday on the witness stand, prompting the judge to clear the packed courtroom.
U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore rescheduled Gary’s sentencing for April 16.
The abrupt cancellation came just before 2 p.m., as DEA Special Agent Darren Singleton, who’d been under intense questioning by Miami attorney Jeffrey Weiner, was about to reply when his head fell forward, hitting the stand in front of him.
Court officials scrambled to his aid.

***

After a lunch break, Weiner was grilling Singleton about those phone calls and inconsistent statements Gibson appeared to make, compared to what he’d told authorities in two prior statements detailing his involvement.
Moments before Singleton fainted, Weiner had been accusing Gibson of lying to authorities, and had suggested Singleton knew Gibson was lying on Thursday.
As he left court with his extended family, Willie Gary expressed concern for the agent.
“I just hope he’s okay,” he said.

Reports are coming back that the agent is okay and feeling better. That's a better result than the Scopes Monkey Trial, where William Jennings Bryan died shortly after testifying for the prosecution and after the withering cross examination by Clarence Darrow.