Let's Talk Judicial Appointments!

We might as well, since President Obama and Senator McConnell did the same the other day:

President Obama and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell had their first one-on-one meeting today, and it dealt primarily with one topic: Confirming judges.
Or, more precisely, Republican holds on Obama judicial nominees.

"Right now there are 12 federal judicial nominees that have passed the Judiciary Committee with a unanimous vote," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said before the meeting. "There are other judges that have been through the process and approved by the Judiciary Committee."

The meeting concerned "a direct discussion about moving those judges," Gibbs said.

The president is "rightly frustrated" at a pace that is "unrivaled and unmatched in its slowness," Gibbs said, and he added that some recess appointments may be in the offing.

Hmm, that's not good.

According to ACS' nifty website judicialnominations.org, there are now 100 vacancies out of 867 seats on the federal bench.

So that's roughly 10 percent of the judicial branch, with nominees cooling their heels for indefinite periods while they await an uncertain fate in the Senate.

My guess is this will have some deleterious institutional effects on the federal justice system, but what do I know?

This is SFL, hoping I'm wrong (again).

Magistrate Judge Brown Addresses Futility of "Notices of Unavailability"

Judge Brown Notice of Unavailability

Hi kids, SFL here.

Regular readers of my blog know I have a special fondness for this case.

In an order entered yesterday, Magistrate Judge Brown addresses the rather pointless of practice of filing "notices of unavailability," a personal pet peeve of mine:

The parties should note that there is no local rule in our Court providing for the filing of same, and no federal rule supporting same.  While the Court is not precluding anyone from filing same, and as a matter of professionalism and courtesy they should be considered, the parties should understand that these filings have no legal significance.

He's right.

This is a dated practice of dubious utility.  If you have a conflict with an actual (as opposed to a possible or  hypothetical future) Court deadline, ask the Court to move it.  If you don't want the opposing party to schedule something while you're on vacation, pick up the phone and ask them about it.

D.O.M. called

“You haven’t posted anything.”
That was D.O.M. again, calling from wherever.
“Yup.”
“What about that case where Judge Altonaga got affirmed for asserting jurisdiction over the pre-WWII Germans?”
“Yeah, I saw that.”
“So, why not write something up, Professor?”
D.O.M. only busts out my title when things are dark, so I said,
“Well, you gave the blog over to the people who write comments.”
“I thought you didn’t read the comments.”
“I don’t.”
Beat.
“You’re being too uptight about this.”
That was D.O.M. breaking the silence.
“Maybe.”
Beat.

1600!!!

There's a certain honour with being the blogger to post the 1600th post on David O Markus's famous Southern District Of Florida Blog. And with DOM being out of town and unawares, we decided to grab the honour before he could change his mind and revoke our blogging privileges.

For those of you discriminating enough to read our own humble blog about the Richard E Gerstein Courthouse in Miami, you know that last week we promised- at the possible expense of Mr. Markus's standing in the community and his law license- to post a joke that started off this way: " A rabbi, a priest, President Obama and (insert your favourite federal judge here) walk into Tobacco road...."

But before we get to the punch line, there's this to consider:

Rumpole's person of the day:

Meet Former Jet Blue Flight Attendant Steven Slater. On a flight on Monday inbound to JFK from Pittsburgh, Mr. Slater had a confrontation with an unruly female passenger. (Side note- those gals from the Steel City can be quite a handful when they've had a few Iron City beers in them). Upon landing at JFK, Mr. Slater had all he could take. When the plane stopped taxing, Mr. Sater activated the emergency exit, deployed the emergency slide, grabbed a beer from the beverage cart, and slid off the plane and into instant fame. Mr. Slater got into his car and drove home to Queens where a few hours later a few members of New York's Finest showed up to arrest him on a slate of charges. For those of you who exclusively practice in Federal Court, The NY Times coverage is here.

For those of you who occasionally venture over to State Court, the NY Post coverage is here. (Headline was "Wing-Nut pleads not guilty.")

Punchline: They all walk up to the bar and order a round of beers. And the bartender looks up and sees who has walked in and says: 'what is this, some kind of joke?' "

Sorry folks, this is what happens when DOM goes on vacation.

See You in Court.

HR.

PS-if you want to know something useful about current federal legal developments, read South Florida Lawyer's post just below this one. We craftily waited until he posted number 1599 so we could grab 1600.

11th Circuit Limits "Safety-Valve" Sentencing Relief.

Hi kids, SFL here, killing time while David O undoubtedly does something glamorous and exciting I am sure.

I'm glad I don't do any criminal, because if I did I'd have to use the term "safety-valve" as part of my work.

Instead I'm stuck with delightful words and phrases such as "Celotex," "Iqbal," "Venetian Salami" and "mending the hold."

But for those of you who derive some kind of legal meaning from a safety valve, you may consider this new 11th Circuit opinion of value, which disagrees with several other circuits on this question:

The question we must resolve today is this one: can a district court grant safety-valve relief when reducing a defendant’s sentence pursuant to section 3582(c)(2)? The answer is “no,” because the safety-valve is inapplicable to sentence-modification proceedings.

Best I can tell, the 11th reasons that a Section 3582(c)(2) proceeding is not a "sentencing or resentencing" proceeding, but is instead a "modification of a term of imprisonment."
 
But then later there's a footnote in which the 11th acknowledges "they are in some sense a sentencing proceeding."

So I'm glad crim law makes as much sense as civil litigation?

Big news from the road

Judge Paul Huck has informed President Obama that he will be taking senior status. That makes three current openings; Judge Hurley (to be filled by Kathy Williams); Judge Gold; and now Judge Huck.

Judge Huck has been a wonderful district judge and is regarded as the hardest working judge in the District. I have lots more to say when I can get to a computer instead of this phone. In the meantime, congrats to Judge Huck.

Good luck to...

... Brian Stekloff, who after making a good name for himself at the PD's office, is off to Paul Weiss in DC.

They needed someone to try cases, and they found the right guy.

Straw buyers walk

Four of em... Before Judge D after an 11 day trial. Defendants repped by Phil Horowitz, Alan Kaufman, Brian Tannebaum, and John Wylie. Congrats.