11th Circuit conference ends badly

It was the big 11th Circuit conference in Alabama last week, with all of the judges in the Circuit attending.  And the Circuit Justice -- Justice Clarence Thomas -- was there giving the keynote.  But during his speech, Judge Merryday collapsed and had to be rushed out.  The Daily Report has more:

A medical emergency in the back of the room abruptly ended a question and answer program with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at the U.S. Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit Judicial Conference late Friday.
Thomas was starting to talk about legal opinions on bankruptcy law--saying he worries about challenges facing the judges he had been talking with during the conference --but he never got to finish his sentence. The crowd in the back corner of the ballroom at the Grand Hotel Conference Center began to move and people began saying, "Call 911."
Chief Judge Steven Merryday of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida had collapsed and fallen to the floor. Agents from the U.S. Marshal's office and hotel security staff immediately came to his aid while they waited for an ambulance to arrive. Thomas waited on stage with University of Georgia Law School Dean Peter "Bo" Rutledge, who had been asking the questions of the justice, and Eleventh Circuit Chief Judge Ed Carnes, who had made the introductions.
They were about halfway through their planned one hour and five minute presentation, after which Carnes was scheduled for 15 minutes of closing remarks.
Soon the marshals gave an order to clear the room and keep a clear path to the door. Hotel staff directed the attendees toward a hallway and a sunny, breezy terrace beside Mobile Bay.
An ambulance arrived within minutes. Emergency responders began speaking to the judge, asking him questions and trying to prompt a response. They asked him to smile if he could understand them. Merryday was conscious and stood for a moment with help before being secured onto a stretcher and moved to the waiting ambulance to drive to a hospital in nearby Fairhope.
Judges and lawyers waiting in the hallway expressed their hope and prayers for the judge's recovery. Some said they were initially afraid they were being attacked when they heard the commotion and a call for 911.
Carnes decided not to reconvene the meeting, which was scheduled to end at 5 p.m. and had run like clockwork for two days. The 160 judges and 300 lawyers in attendance slowly began to leave. Shortly after 5 p.m. Carnes received a phone call, after which he announced to the few still gathered in the hallway that Merryday was at the hospital and in stable condition. His wife had been contacted by a friend and neighbor who is married to another judge attending the conference.

UPDATE -- According to online reports, Judge Merryday is okay.

Is Aventura bomber mentally ill?

From Paula McMahon:

The bond hearing for a Hollywood man accused of planning to bomb an Aventura synagogue has been postponed to Tuesday.
James Gonzalo Medina, 40, is accused of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction — a dummy bomb he received from a man who was working under cover with the FBI. If convicted, he could face life in federal prison.
***
Gladys Jaramillo, 38, told the Sun Sentinel in a phone interview that Medina is her cousin and that he has suffered from serious mental health problems since he suffered head injuries and was in a coma following a serious car accident some years ago.
"He used to be a normal person but he had a big accident and we thought he was going to die," said Jaramillo, who said she is a teacher and lives in the Bronx. "He has had mental problems since he got in that accident."

May the 4th be with you! (UPDATED)

Happy Star Wars Day!

Judge Rosenbaum has an interesting opinion about a bad cop here.  From the intro:

Defendant-Appellant Timothy Filbeck was a lieutenant with the Butts County Sheriff’s Office. When his house was foreclosed upon, he, like anyone else who has been through foreclosure, had certain options available to him. But arresting the new owner’s agents, Plaintiffs-Appellees David Carter, Clayton Graham, Jr., and Mitchell Webster (collectively, “Plaintiffs”), who were lawfully performing their jobs, was not one of them. And neither was ordering Plaintiffs handcuffed and thrown in jail overnight. We think that should go without saying. Yet Filbeck did these things, anyway. Now Filbeck tries to convince us that he is immune from suit. We are not persuaded. Being a law-enforcement officer is not a license to break the law. And it is certainly not a shield behind which Filbeck may abuse his power with impunity.

UPDATE --  Judge William Pryor has issued another pro-defendant opinion, this time for a pro-se serial filer:

This appeal presents a question of first impression about the “three strikes”
provision of the Prison Litigation Reform Act, which ordinarily denies in forma
pauperis status to a prisoner who “on 3 or more prior occasions” brought a federal
action or appeal that “was dismissed on the grounds that it is frivolous, malicious,
or fails to state a claim upon which relief may be granted,” 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g).
Waseem Daker is a state prisoner and a serial litigator in federal courts. Daker has
submitted over a thousand pro se filings in over a hundred actions and appeals in at
least nine different federal courts. In this lawsuit, the district court denied Daker’s
petition to proceed in forma pauperis because it concluded that he had six strikes
under the Act. Two of Daker’s earlier filings were dismissed for lack of
jurisdiction, and the other four were dismissed for want of prosecution. In three of
the four dismissals for want of prosecution, a judge of this Court determined that
Daker could not proceed in forma pauperis because his filings were frivolous. But
a single circuit judge cannot dismiss an action or appeal, Fed. R. App. P. 27(c);
instead, panels of this Court dismissed Daker’s filings because he failed to pay the
filing fee, 11th Cir. R. 42-1(b). Although Daker is a serial litigant who has clogged
the federal courts with frivolous litigation, we must follow the text of the Act,
which does not classify his six prior dismissals for lack of jurisdiction and want of
prosecution as strikes. We vacate the dismissal of Daker’s complaint and remand
for further proceedings.

FBI stops plot to bomb Aventura temple (update)

Mag court should be interesting today. Judge Turnoff is presiding. The Herald has more here:

A Hollywood man was arrested Friday night by FBI agents while he was attempting to carry out an explosive attack on an Aventura synagogue, according to officials.
Juan Medina is accused of plotting with confidential FBI sources in an attempt to blow up the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center, 20400 NE 30th Ave., during services on Friday.
Medina was held in the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami over the weekend and is expected to have his first appearance Monday afternoon in magistrate court.
He is expected to be charged with a weapons of mass destruction offense.
He was portrayed by law enforcement officials as being anti-Semitic, and that might have been be a factor in his motivation to carry out the deadly plot.

UPDATE -- well, the mag appearance was indeed interesting.  From the Sun-Sentinel:

The suspect seemed to want to make a speech in court but was shut down by U.S. Magistrate Judge William Turnoff.
"I've got a few words of my own. ... My name is James Medina, aka James Mohammed," he told the judge.
***
On Monday, the judge ordered Medina will remain locked up at least until a detention hearing Thursday morning where the prosecution and defense can make their arguments.
Medina said in court that he is out of work, divorced and has no significant assets. The judge appointed the Federal Public Defender's Office to represent him. Office policy prohibits assistant federal public defenders from commenting on pending cases.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/aventura/article75089722.html#storylink=cpy

"not Quam ghu'vam, IoD!"

That's Klingon for, "This will not stand, man!" And it's in the amicus brief arguing that you can't copyright Klingon.

The Recorder has more:

To say the filing is colorful doesn't do it justice. Submitted by Marc Randazza of Las Vegas-based Randazza Legal Group, it is peppered with Klingon sayings­—including a translation of a phrase from the 1998 film "The Big Lebowski."
By the film studio's logic, the brief argues, everyone who translates something into Klingon, writes a poem in Klingon, or gives a speech in Klingon at a Star Trek convention is a copyright infringer. It adds: "not Quam ghu'vam, IoD!" (For the uninitiated, that's: "This will not stand, man!")
Overall, the language group's argument in Paramount v. Axanar, 15-9938, is that Klingon has taken on a life of its own since Paramount commissioned its creation by linguistics professor Marc Okrand in the early 1980s for the film "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock."
Okrand further developed the dialogue from that film into a functioning language and published a dictionary in 1985. Since then, entire groups of people have embraced it—teaching it to their children, exchanging marriage vows in Klingon, and even establishing the Klingon Language Institute, or KLI, which has translated works of Shakespeare into Klingon.
"Given that Paramount Pictures commissioned creation of some of the language, it is understandable that Paramount might feel some sense of ownership over the creation," the brief says. "But, feeling ownership and having ownership are not the same thing."
According to the brief, Paramount has actually claimed the rights to the Klingon language for many years, but has never asserted it in court until now—"most likely because the notion of it is meq Hutlh." (Translation: "it lacks reasons.")
Paramount once threatened to bring suit against the KLI, it says, but the institute avoided a clash by agreeing to license the use of the language.The fight appears to present a novel legal issue for U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner, who is presiding over the case."
Just as 'great men do not seek power, it is thrust upon them,' this court now has the opportunity to weigh in on the copyrightability of language and declare that there is no basis in either law or policy to allow copyright in a spoken language," the brief says, quoting a line from "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."

 In other news, President Obama has nominated a bunch of new judges, some of which in the Middle District, including William Jung.  Cool!

William F. Jung:  Nominee for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida

William F. Jung is a partner at the law firm of Jung & Sisco, P.A. (formerly Black & Jung, P.A.) in Tampa, Florida, which he co-founded in 1993.  He specializes in white collar criminal defense and complex civil litigation.  Prior to starting his own firm, Jung served as an Assistant United States Attorney for six years – first in the Southern District of Florida from 1987 to 1990 and subsequently in the Middle District of Florida from 1990 to 1993.  From 1985 to 1987, he was an associate for the Tampa, Florida office of Carlton Fields Jorden Burt, P.A.  From 1984 to 1985, he served as a law clerk to then-Justice William H. Rehnquist of the Supreme Court of the United States.  Jung began his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Gerald Tjoflat of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.  He received his J.D. summa cum laude from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1983 and his B.A. magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University in 1980.

Sarah Bujold selected for the UM School of Law Stuart A. Markus award

Friends and readers of the blog know that my family set up an award in my Dad's name at the University of Miami School of Law three years ago.  The Stuart A. Markus Award recognizes an individual student each year for outstanding work in one of the School of Law’s in-house clinics. The winner is selected by vote of the in-house, live-client clinic directors.  The first award went to Bethany Bandstra.  And last year went to Lindsay MacDonald.

This year the Markus Award went to Sarah Bujold. Sarah’s work and professionalism in the Health Rights Clinic were truly outstanding and distinguished her even among the other nominees for the award. Over the course of the academic year, she successfully argued two hearings before Social Security judges, securing past-benefit awards for two clients—totaling more than $50,000—in addition to their ongoing entitlements. She also filed and argued two administrative appeals before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, drafted a petition for a writ of mandamus to the Florida Supreme Court, and sued USCIS, prompting the agency to grant her client naturalization. All of this was in addition to Sarah’s maintaining a regular caseload, securing healthcare entitlements and immigration relief for her clients and serving as a guardian ad litem for children in dependency proceedings in Monroe County. Sarah has made real contributions to class discussions, especially on issues of ethics and ethical judgment. She drafted a presentation about her experiences that was accepted by the International Journal of Clinical Legal Education and the Association for Canadian Clinical Legal Education, and she will be presenting this summer in Toronto at the International Clinical Legal Education Conference.

Super Impressive.

My dad practiced law in Miami for over 50 years.  Throughout his career, he fought hard for his clients in every area of the law.  He never turned away a person in need, and helped countless people with practical, hands-on advice and representation that went far above and beyond the norm.  The Markus Award is given annually to a student who shares that caring spirit, and who has made a meaningful difference in someone’s life – which is something my dad did every day.

Congratulations to Sarah!

"That hasn’t happened in quite some time.”

That was Justice Ginsburg after she was referred to as Justice O'Connor during an oral argument today in United States v. McDonnell. (via The Washington Post).

OOF!

Well, that's better than being called a "serial child molestor" when your previous title was Speaker of the House:

An Illinois federal judge on Wednesday sentenced former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, once second in line to the President of the United States, to 15 months in prison and two years of supervised release after Hastert admitted hiding hush money he paid to cover up his sexual abuse of teenage boys on the Yorkville high school wrestling team.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin called Hastert a "serial child molester" as he imposed the sentence for dodging federal banking laws following a wrenching hearing in Illinois federal court. Hastert also must undergo treatment as a sex offender and pay a $250,000 fine to go toward a criminal victims' fund.

"Some actions can obliterate a lifetime of good works," Durkin said.

Hastert. the former high school teacher and wrestling coach who was elected to Congress in 1986, said Wednesday he was "deeply ashamed" for having "mistreated" some athletes he coached. "For 11 months, I have been struggling to come to terms with events that occurred almost 40 years ago," Hastert said.

Mistreated?  Mistreated?!  That doesn't sound like acceptance of responsibility...

Two defense opinions in the 11th Circuit written by...

... William Pryor.

1) United States v. Jimenez-Antunez:

This appeal presents a question of first impression in this Circuit: whether a criminal defendant must show good cause to dismiss retained counsel if the defendant intends to seek appointed counsel. Gabriel Jimenez-Antunez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Weeks before his sentencing hearing, Jimenez-Antunez sent a letter to his retained counsel expressing an intent to dismiss him. His retained counsel then moved to withdraw and stated that his client would request appointed counsel. The district court denied the motion on the ground that Jimenez-Antunez had been afforded effective assistance of counsel by his retained counsel. Because a criminal defendant need not show good cause to dismiss retained counsel, we vacate and remand for further proceedings.

2) Norris v. United States:

This appeal requires us to decide whether the district court erred by denying an evidentiary hearing for Harrison Norris’s motion to vacate, 28 U.S.C. § 2255, which alleged that his conviction violated the Due Process Clause because his trial judge was biased against him and mentally incompetent. Norris, a black man, was convicted of forcing women, many of whom were white, into prostitution. Judge Jack Camp presided over Norris’s trial and sentenced him to life in prison. We vacated that sentence as an impermissible general sentence. On remand, a different judge sentenced Norris to 35 years of imprisonment. Three years after Norris’s trial, Judge Camp was arrested for illegal possession of drugs and a firearm. The United States disclosed that Camp had bipolar disorder and had suffered a brain injury from a bicycling accident. The investigation also disclosed allegations of racial bias. One witness alleged that Camp wanted to give all black men who pimped white women the maximum penalty and that Camp specifically disliked Norris. Because Norris sufficiently alleged that Judge Camp was actually biased against him, we reverse and remand for an evidentiary hearing.