Congratulations to Judge Melissa Damian

By John R. Byrne

Beautiful ceremony this Friday afternoon celebrating Judge Damian’s investiture.  Judge Ungaro gave a heartfelt speech about her former law clerk followed by funny and poignant speeches from Melanie Damian and the judge herself.  

Blogger David Markus was in absentia but received a shout out!

House Republicans block naming of federal courthouse in honor of Joseph Hatchett

In the last post, I said how rare it was for a bill to get bipartisan support.  This is a good example.  Even though Florida Senators Rubio and Scott pushed naming the federal courthouse in Tallahassee after Judge Hatchett, House Republicans shot it down.  Hatchett was an unbelievable trailblazer: veteran, first black federal appellate judge in the South, 5th Circuit judge, 11th Circuit judge, Florida Supreme Court Justice, etc.  I don't get it. 

238-187-1: House defeated bill naming US Courthouse & Federal Bldg in Tallahassee, FL for Joseph Hatchett, 1st Black FL Supreme Ct justice & 1st Black man to serve on federal appeals ct in Deep South, appointed to 5th Circuit Ct of Appeals. Bill failed to get 2/3rds vote to pass. pic.twitter.com/0mRUBfKaN7

— Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) March 30, 2022

From Politico:

The U.S. House on Wednesday blocked consideration of a bill pushed by Sen. Marco Rubio that would rename the federal courthouse and federal building located in downtown Tallahassee after Judge Joseph Woodrow Hatchett. Hatchett, who died in 2021, was the first Black person appointed to the Florida Supreme Court and eventually became a federal appeals court judge.

Both Rubio and Florida Sen. Rick Scott backed the effort to rename the courthouse after Hatchett with Rubio saying back in December that “his story is worthy of commemoration.” But it took a two-thirds vote — a process setup for legislation considered uncontroversial — for the House to take up the Senate bill and the effort failed largely due to opposition from House Republicans.

Ten of the 16 Republicans from Florida voted against Rubio’s bill: Reps.. Dunn, who is from Panama City, Gus Bilirakis, Vern Buchanan, Kat Cammack, Byron Donalds, Neil Dunn, Scott Franklin, Matt Gaetz, Brian Mast, John Rutherford and Greg Steube, who represents part of Tallahassee and in the most recent map vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis would have represented the entire city. Axios reported that Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) was “behind the defeat of the bill because Clyde said he ‘let it be known’ to colleagues that Hatchett authored a 1999 opinion banning prayer at public school graduations."

"Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act of 2021"

That's the name of the bill that passed in the House by a vote of 405-12.  Here's hoping for the Senate to pass it as well.  

Nothing passes with such bipartisan support anymore, so this is pretty big.  

From the House press release:

Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, today addressed the House of Representatives and urged passage of his bill, the Prohibiting Punishment for Acquitted Conduct Act. The bill later passed the House on a vote of 405 to 12.

Congressmen Cohen and Kelly Armstrong (N.D., at large) introduced the measure last year to end the unjust practice of judges increasing sentences based on conduct for which a defendant has not been convicted.

In his speech on the House floor today, Congressman Cohen said, in part:

“I want to thank Mr. Armstrong for working with me on it. He was a strong proponent of the bill and it is truly bipartisan and bicameral...I’ve got a few pages of speeches here but there’s no reasons to – a long time ago I was told – you make the sale and you sit down. The sale has been made, I believe.”

See those remarks, including part of the debate, here.

When the Judiciary Committee voted to advance the measure in November, Congressman Armstrong made the following statement:

“The right of criminal defendants to be judged by a jury of their peers is a foundational principle of the Constitution. The current practice of allowing federal judges to sentence defendants based on conduct for which they were acquitted by a jury is not right and is not fair.”

A similar measure introduced by Senators Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) was considered in the Senate Judiciary Committee last June and has been advanced to the full Senate.

For the Defense Season Finale: Ed Shohat for Carlos Lehder

FOR THE DEFENSE SEASON 4 FINALE, EPISODE 8

EDWARD SHOHAT FOR CARLOS LEHDER

It's the Season 4 Finale of For the Defense this morning with the wonderful Ed Shohat for Carlos Lehder -- one of the biggest (and longest -- 7 months!) drug trials in U.S. history.  You can check it out on all podcast platforms (including Apple, Spotify and Google. All other platforms can be accessed on this website.) 

 

It's been a really great and fun season, which included:

• Bruce Rogow for 2 Live Crew and Luther Campbell 
• Mark Geragos for Susan McDougal
• Juanita Brooks for John DeLorean
• Gerry Goldstein for Richard Dexter (Deep Throat)
• Geoffrey Fieger for Dr. Jack Kevorikian
• Brian Heberlig for Ali Sadr and
• John Gleeson for The Holloway Project. 

 

Thank you to all of these great lawyers for sitting down with me this season. Also thank you to Alfred Spellman and to Cliff Bumgardner for all of their support in producing this labor of love.

CLE CREDIT FOR FLORIDA LAWYERS:  If you are a Florida lawyer and have listened to the whole season, you qualify for 8 CLE credits, including 1 technology credit and 1 ethics credit.  Please use course number 2110734N and course title: "For the Defense", with David O. Markus-Season 4.  This is free CLE credit -- woohoo! All that I ask in return is that you spread the word and leave a review.

Thanks again for all of your feedback and suggestions throughout the course of the season. 
 

--David
 

Hosted by David Oscar Markus and produced by rakontur
 

If you have a friend that would like to receive these updates, please have them sign up here. 

CONTACT: info@rakontur.com, dmarkus@markuslaw.com

Happy birthday to Sandra Day O'Connor

She is 92, and sadly mostly withdrawn from public life because of the onset of dementia.

I wonder what she would think of the confirmation hearings and how Republicans acted and how they treated KBJ.

I wonder what she would think of the current Court and how they may undue Roe v. Wade.

I wonder what she would think about Ginni Thomas and January 6.

Trump Sues Clinton

By John R. Byrne

It's a long complaint and you can read it here.   In short, he alleges that, in the lead up to the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, the DNC, and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, among others, conspired to craft the false narrative that he was colluding with Russia.  It's a nine count complaint that includes counts for RICO, RICO conspiracy, malicious prosecution, and theft of trade secrets.  Judge Middlebrooks drew the case.  Peter Ticktin of the Ticktin Law Group signed the complaint.  

Miami attorney Richard Rosenthal testifies for KBJ

Well done, Richard!

 

What is the GOP doing at the KBJ hearings? (UPDATED)

SAD!

Political theatre at its worst.... and nothing to do with judging or being a Justice.

These two -- Cruz and Jackson -- were on law review together at HLS.  One is blowing up pictures of books that KBJ has never discussed or written about.... literally nothing to do with her. But he wants to run for president. 

The other is trying to stay poker-faced and answer questions about her record.  She's doing a wonderful job and will be confirmed.  

UPDATE -- if the first day of questioning was disappointing for those of us who want a fair and objective Senate, the second day was a total embarrassment.  Cruz, Hawley, Cotton... wow.