Vacation for civil division!

Everyone around the courthouse -- AUSAs, AFPDs, CSOs, Marshals, courtroom deputies, FDC guards, everyone -- seems to be asking whether they will be working if the government shuts down next week.

Most of DOJ will continue to operate:

All FBI personnel will continue to work, and all 116 federal prisons will remain open, according to the department. In addition, criminal litigation will continue uninterrupted. But the department will be forced to stop or curtail activities including most civil litigation, community outreach to victims of crime and the processing of grants.

Sorry Judges, you'll have to show up too:

As most of the federal government and those who depend on it brace for a possible partial shutdown, the federal judiciary says there should be no visible disruption in its operations for two weeks.

The judiciary pays its bills in part with fees, which are outside the regular appropriations process, and it says it has enough in reserves to keep its doors open even if Congress does not agree on a budget.
***
If a shutdown were to last more than two weeks, then individual districts and judges would need to make decisions about which services are essential. Some work, such as that of probation officers, is considered essential under federal law, Carelli said. Jury trials could go forward, but payments to jurors would be deferred, according to a separate statement from the administrative office.

Probation officers essential?? Even after Booker?

The 11th Circuit can't afford to take any time off -- it's got the highest caseload in the country, but partisan bickering is already taking aim at Daisy Floyd, and she hasn't even been nominated yet.

Will we get a Bonds verdict before the shutdown?

Feds bust B-girl crew

Don't know what a B-girl is, do you? Well, the USAO just busted a bunch of them in a fascinating case. Here's the complaint.

The New Times summarizes it:

The FBI today has busted an Eastern European ring that set up a half dozen fake clubs in South Beach that existed solely to steal thousands of dollars from wealthy tourists lured there by a team of beautiful "B-Girl" scam artists. Really!

Federal prosecutors charged seventeen people today in the scam, which hinged on lovely Eastern European "Bar Girls" -- or "B-Girls" -- luring out-of-town businessmen and tourists from legit clubs to the gang's "private establishments."

Here's how the incredible scheme worked, the feds say.

The gang set up at least six fake clubs: Caviar Beach and Stars Lounge, both at 643 Washington Ave.; a room inside Club Moreno at 1341 Washington Ave.; Nowhere Bar at 643 Washington Ave.; Steel Toast at 758 Washington Ave.; and the Tangia Club at 841 Washington Ave.

They also shipped in numerous B-Girls from Eastern Europe and rented them apartments around South Beach. The gang's bouncers, meanwhile, prevented anyone from entering the clubs except for marks accompanied by B-Girls.

Once inside, bartenders working for the gang would rack up tens of thousands of dollars on the men's credit cards and sometimes forge their signatures.

Here's my question -- does this case belong in federal court or state court? Talk to me.

Magistrate Judge Goodman quotes Robert Zimmerman

Judge Goodman has some fun in this entertaining (and long -- 63 pages) order on spoliation of evidence. The whole order is below. Here are two fun passages in which Judge Goodman cites to Wikipedia and Brainyquote:

Although it may seem obvious now, in 2011, that a party is required to implement a litigation hold to preserve e-discovery, the Court recognizes that, to paraphrase famous singer-songwriter Robert Zimmerman, “the times they were a-changin’” -- and in the world of e-discovery the times of 7 and 8 years ago were significantly different than now. [Footnote -- Robert Zimmerman is more-widely known as Bob Dylan. “The Times They Are a-Changin’” is a well-known song which Mr. Dylan released as the title track of his 1964 album of the same name. The song was ranked #59 on Rolling Stone’s 2004 list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times_They_Are_a-Changin%27 (last visited Apr. 4, 2011) (citing http://www.rocklistmusic.co/uk/rstone.html#500Songs).]

***

Well known politician Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. (1912 – 1994), sometimes known as “Tip” O’Neill, famously said that “all politics is local.”* Judicial decisions are also local -- because federal district courts must follow their “local” circuit courts of appeals in the absence of a contrary U.S. Supreme Court decision. This maxim of jurisprudence arises here as an initial matter because some circuit and district courts in other “local” circuits apply differing rules for analyzing electronic discovery spoliation claims.

*http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomaspo212119.html (last visited Mar. 18, 2011). Tip O’Neill was the “gregarious and irrepressibly liberal Bostonian who symbolized the Democratic Party through much of the 1980’s as Speaker of the House.” While a senior at Boston College, he ran for the Cambridge City Council, finishing ninth in a field of 60 candidates, of whom the top eight were elected. Mr. O’Neill had not campaigned in his own neighborhood, which he taken for granted and where he made a poor showing. He lost the critical eighth spot by 150 votes. In a post-mortem on the campaign, Mr. O’Neill’s father told him what he had learned in a lifetime of politics and what “Tip” would later use as his own political commentary: “All politics is local.” http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday (last visited Mar. 18, 2011).


Judge Goodman's Order on Motion to Determine Spoliation of Evidence and Appropriate Sanctions [4!5!11]


Apologies to SFL for intruding on his turf. But it seems like orders like these rarely come out in criminal cases in this District. Judges rarely write lengthy orders regarding sentencing, criminal evidentiary issues, motions to suppress, etc.

P.S. Thank you to a tipster for this order. I appreciate it.

UPDATE -- Perhaps Judge Goodman should attend this conference on Bob Dylan and the law. (HT: SFL twitter)

Please raise your hand if you'd like to speak

Sheesh, the Supreme Court Justices are getting annoying, no?

Here's Adam Liptak about how oral argument has turned into sniping among the Justices:

If you didn’t know it was a Supreme Court argument, you might think you were seeing a catastrophically overbooked cable television show.

The justices of late have been jostling for judicial airtime in a sort of verbal roller derby. Consider an argument last month about the right to counsel. About 15 minutes in, Justice Stephen G. Breyer tried to ask a question. The effort failed, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg jumped in. A half-hour passed before Justice Breyer had another chance, and now his attempt was interrupted by Justice Antonin Scalia, who said Justice Breyer was asking irrelevant questions. Then Justice Scalia pressed a point that did not interest Justice Breyer. As the lawyer tried to answer Justice Scalia, Justice Breyer stopped him. “Skip that one,” Justice Breyer said of Justice Scalia’s question.

Earlier, as Justice Anthony M. Kennedy was trying to get a word in edgewise, Justice Scalia succeeded in handing off the ball to a frequent ally, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. “Maybe Justice Alito can ask his question,” Justice Scalia said as he finished making his own point.

Seth P. Waxman, a former United States solicitor general, was caught in the cross-fire. He was answering a question from Justice Sonia Sotomayor when Chief Justice John G. Roberts tried to interrupt. “Counsel,” the chief justice said. Mr. Waxman kept talking, which seemed to irritate the chief justice. “Counsel!” the chief justice repeated, now in a raised voice. (The exclamation point is in the official transcript.) Mr. Waxman was contrite. “Mr. Chief Justice, I’m sorry,” he said.

Legal Services to honor Kathy Williams and Jennifer Bailey

This is going to be a nice event that you should come to. May 5 at the WAREhOUSE at 6:30.

"I didn’t sense a hostility about being Cuban-American...

...but I sensed a distrust from the committee about being a young mother who wanted to be a judge.”

That was Judge Altonaga responding to a question from a student at her former school. The Herald has the nice story about her return to the school here:

The first Cuban-American woman ever appointed to a U.S. federal court bench said studying at Notre Dame Academy in Miami taught her the meaning of tolerance. It was the end of 1970s, one of the most tumultuous periods of racial discontent in Miami’s history. Her all-girls high school was one of the most racially integrated in the city. “I remember in my last year, coming back from a graduation night,” said Cecilia María Altonaga, who graduated in 1980.

“Our parents had to pick us up from the school, and the riots were going on at the same time. The school was closed. It was dangerous.” There were no final exams that year, due to the violence. But inside the school, a different story about race was unfolding. “This was a place that exhibited all these different racial/ethnic groups coexisting, working together, overcoming differences,” said Altonaga. “There is this perception that all Catholic girls schools are elitist or homogenous or they exclude people. This was quite the opposite, one of the most diverse groups of young women working together.”

She returned to her alma mater — which soon after she graduated merged with Archbishop Curley High School — on Saturday to talk about her career in the law to about two dozen current students. The forum followed a special Mass at the Archbiship Curley-Notre Dame High School, which each year honors an alum who now serves the community as an attorney or judge.

How much does it cost to retrofit a courtroom?

Judge Jordan is in a long securities fraud trial right now. But that's nothing compared to what he has coming up with the Mutual Benefits case, which is expected to last 8 months. Now, the government has asked to retrofit a courtroom to allow for two juries to preside at the same time because of severance issues. I feel for Judge Jordan on this case.

Reading Administrative Orders on Friday Afternoon

Yes, the exciting life of a federal blogger. (Rumpole, on the other hand, is posting April Fools jokes).

Well, I'm sure you've been waiting on the edge of your seats to find out about the new magistrate pairings. Here they are!

And Judge Torres is up for re-appointment.

Need to have more .... Click here.