New blog in town

And like Rumpole and SFL, it's anonymous.  It's a fun read, even though the title sucks: Kosher Meatball Blog.

Sarah Palin and Titi monkeys

Slow news day here in the SDFLA.  So, I give you these two items:

1.  Sarah Palin makes up a word (via Gawker):



2.  Man arrested for hiding 18 monkeys in his girdle. (via CNN).

"I am not there to entertain anybody."

That was Clarence Thomas at the Utah State Bar convention.  Some highlights from two articles (here and here):

• When he first arrived on the court, members “actually listened to lawyers,” Thomas said. “We have ceased doing that. Now it’s become a debate or seminar. I don’t find that particularly helpful. It may be entertaining, but I am not there to entertain anybody.”
• “There can be some questions to clarify things, to challenge it, but you don’t need 50 questions per case,” Thomas said. “That becomes more like “Family Feud” than oral argument.”
• To his Utah audience, Thomas was unexpectedly warm, funny and engaging — a different man in person, some said, than portrayed in media reports that focus on his bench demeanor.
• "Things might happen when (I'm not at the court)," he said. "You all may not remember that Eddie Murphy skit where he's on the bus and he's the only black guy on the bus and nobody talks — it's sort of like being on an elevator. As soon as Eddie Murphy leaves the bus, all the whites who are left on the bus throw off their outer garments and they're in party outfits. So things may be going on at the court (when I'm not there) — they may just be waiting and saying, 'Oh, the black guy's gone!' "
• “Deciding these cases is only easy for those who have no authority to decide them,” Thomas said. “For the rest of us, we don’t have the luxury of impugning motives, of being cynical or being political, because one vote, one mistake, can cause significant harm and change something for quite some time to the detriment of our country.”
• Thomas also said he thought it “could be a problem” to have judges selected through a political process.
• Thomas, a Roman Catholic, said his faith is a “source of strength” but that “it would violate the oath to put my faith ahead of what the law actually says, and I don’t do that.”
• One audience member asked Thomas about Chief Justice John Roberts’ reported push for more consensus decisions. “I would equate trying to get the members of the court to do what you want them to do with herding gnats in a hurricane,” Thomas said.
• "I think (the politics) about Bush v. Gore is more (a creation) of what the media said about Bush v. Gore, which I think is unfortunate," he said. "I think we have a tendency in this country to characterize institutions in ways that fit in a particular mode and fit a preconceived notion. … The interesting thing is, if you ask the members of the court, they may disagree, they may be upset, they may be passionate, but they would not say it's politics."
• "I'm convinced," he said, "that part of (this job) is that when you consider the consequences of the decisions that we make, it does weigh on you and it does show you that there's something so important that you've got to get it right. It does have an effect on you."
• "(The Supreme Court) truly is a marble palace (because) we're isolated. We're isolated from the politics, we're isolated from the city and in a lot of ways we're isolated from the country. These trips allow me to come out and see the people who really matter in our government, and that is you all."
  
  

Unnamed AUSA's mailbox burned down

Here's the Sun-Sentinel article.

The assistant U.S. attorney — whose name has not yet been released — called authorities Sunday when she saw her mailbox on fire at her home in the Caloosa equestrian neighborhood.
***
"At this point in time, we are just thinking of this as mischievous vandalism," ATF spokesman Carlos Baixauli said.

Wesley Snipes' conviction and 3-year sentence affirmed

Wesley Snipes was only convicted of three misdemeanors (and acquitted of all the felonies), yet the 11th Circuit has affirmed his 3-year sentence.  That seems harsh to me, especially because he was sentenced based on the relevant conduct for which he was acquitted.  From the reasonableness portion of the opinion:

Here, the district court carefully complied with the sentencing procedures. The judge conducted an extensive sentencing hearing and listened to Snipes’s allocution, several character witnesses, and argument about sentencing. The court correctly calculated the guideline range and, again, noted that the guidelines were advisory. The sentencing transcript reveals that the judge weighed each factor embodied in the Section 3553(a) calculus before pronouncing the sentence, which was within the recommended guideline range. The sentence was not procedurally unreasonable.


Next, we “consider the substantive reasonableness of the sentence imposed under an abuse-of-discretion standard.” Id. at 1190 (quoting Gall, 552 U.S. at 51). “[W]e will not second guess the weight (or lack thereof) that the judge accorded to a given factor . . . [under § 3553(a)], as long as the sentence ultimately imposed is reasonable in light of all the circumstances presented.” Id. at 1191 (citation and quotation marks omitted). The party challenging a sentence has the burden of establishing that it was unreasonable. United States v. Talley, 431 F.3d 784, 788 (11th Cir. 2005).


The district court gave ample consideration to each of the relevant considerations found in 3553(a). Although the discussion about general deterrence was somewhat longer than the discussion of the other factors, its length corresponds with the emphasis the Sentencing Guidelines placed on deterrence in the criminal tax context. The introductory commentary to the Tax section of the Sentencing Guidelines explains that 

[b]ecause of the limited number of criminal tax prosecutions relative to the estimated incidence of such violations, deterring others from violating the tax laws is a primary consideration underlying these guidelines. Recognition that the sentence for a criminal tax case will be commensurate with the gravity of the offense should act as a deterrent to would-be violators. U.S.S.G. Ch. 2 Pt. T, intro. Comment (emphasis added).

Moreover, “[w]hen the district court imposes a sentence within the advisory

Live blogging Willy Ferrer's swearing-in

Willy Ferrer's investiture today

Chief Judge Moreno swears Willy in at 3pm today at the new courthouse.  So, those of you who came to work in casual clothes today or who are planning to sneak out early, you're gonna miss it. 

Congrats to Willy.

"The facts of this case are riddled with extraordinary cruelty and evil."

You know that you aren't going to win an appeal with that as the opening line of the opinion.  And that's how Judge Marcus started off his 87-page opinion in USA v. Chuckie Taylor.   And here's the conclusion:

In sum, we affirm Emmanuel’s convictions and sentence in full. The Torture Act’s proscriptions against both torture and conspiracy to commit torture are constitutional, and may be applied to extraterritorial conduct. The district court did not plainly err in applying § 924(c) to Emmanuel’s extraterritorial conduct, nor in its conduct of this lengthy trial. Finally, Emmanuel’s advisory Sentencing Guidelines range was correctly calculated by the district court, and the sentences imposed violate neither the CAT nor the Constitution.

UPDATE -- here's the AP story.