SCOTUSblog off of Twitter

Not only are they not paying the $8 for the blue check, they have left Twitter altogether.  

Reuters covers how law firms are dealing with the new pay-for-the-blue-check program on Twitter:

While many law firms may be lukewarm to Twitter, some individual lawyers have amassed large followings, using the platform for self-expression, networking and business development.

Are they willing to pay for a checkmark?

Those who have the blue badges include former Manhattan U.S. attorney Preet Bharara, now a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr (1.7 million followers); Hogan Lovells appellate partner Neal Katyal (837,500 followers); Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan founder John Quinn (50,600 followers); and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison appellate chair Kannon Shanmugam (13,000 followers).

Lest you think the list is limited to the elite alone, Michael Avenatti (aka Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island inmate number 86743-054) also has a blue check – and 612,200 followers.

None responded to my requests for comment, though I don’t know if Avenatti can actually get text messages in prison.

Class action watchdog Ted Frank of the of the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute (20,000 followers) also has a blue check. When I asked him about it, he offered this response via email: “I recently purchased a phenomenal fish appetizer at a Chinese restaurant in Virginia for $12, making that at least 150% as important a story. Would be happy to give that a review.”

This is an example of why Ted Frank is good at Twitter.

Still, plenty of lawyers with big followings are checkmark-free. For example, former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder, now senior counsel at Covington & Burling, has 559,300 followers and no blue mark. He declined comment via a firm spokesman.

“A 17-page paper on the importance of professionalism in the legal field and treating one’s opponents with civility.”

Two defense lawyers in the sprawling Young Thug criminal trial were ordered to write a 17 page paper on civility in the middle of trial or go to jail for 20 days.  

Which one would you pick?

The judge also said that the “Paper is to be published quality in APA format and at least 10 primary and secondary sources. April 28 at noon or you do 20 days.”

You can watch the in court order at the Twitter clip here.

So you want to be a Magistrate Judge?

 There’s a new opening as the Judge Otazo-Reyes on November 30.

Applications are due May 3.  

And here’s the committee who will recommend 5 names to the district bench:

Chair:

Ryan Ulloa, Esq.

Members: 

Sashi Bach, Esq.

Matthew Dates, Esq.

Wifredo Ferrer, Esq.

Hector Dopico, AFPD

Jasmin Grant (non-attorney)

Lindsey Lazopoulos Friedman, AUSA Francesca Nabors (non-attorney) Jonathan Osborne, Esq.

Motion To Continue Sentencing Until Rain Stops

By Michael Caruso 

Judges generally believe they are objective and impartial and can ignore irrelevant information when they make decisions. Research, however, has shown that many legally irrelevant factors may influence legal decision-making.

The “anchoring effect” may be the most well-known example. The anchoring effect is a type of cognitive bias where numbers that act as a reference point influence a person. These numbers may or may not be utterly irrelevant. In 2006, Prof. Dan Ariely asked students at MIT to bid on items in an arbitrary auction using social security numbers as their anchor. Students were asked how much they would pay for two types of wine, a cordless mouse, a cordless keyboard, a design book, and chocolates. The professor instructed students to write down the last two digits of their Social Security number at the top of the page and then write them again as a price next to each item. So, if the last two digits were four and five, the student would write $45. When they finished that task, students were asked to indicate for each item “yes” if they would pay that price or “no” if they would not. As the last step, students wrote down the maximum amount they would be willing to pay for each item. Ariely found that students’ Social Security numbers influenced the amount they were willing to pay. Students with the highest last two digits of their Social Security number (80-99) bid the highest, and those with the lowest last two digits (1-20) bid the lowest. When students were debriefed on the experiment and asked if they thought their Social Security numbers influenced the prices they would pay, they stated no.

In the federal criminal legal system, the Sentencing Guidelines have, post-Booker, remained the essential starting point in all federal sentences. Because the Guidelines produce a numerical value, they create a cognitive “anchoring effect” bias that some say exerts a disproportionately strong impact on a judge’s decision-making that may undermine the fairness of sentencing decisions. Researchers have other ways that anchoring biases purportedly impact judicial decision-making. 

But more decidedly irrelevant factors and circumstances may influence a judge’s imposition of sentence. With the disclaimer that I’m not vouching for any of the conclusions made by the authors of these studies (and note contrary studies), here are a few examples where judges purportedly impose longer sentences or render more severe decisions:

—Bad weather (higher sentences when raining) Cf. https://hal.science/hal-03864854/document with https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/137050/8/sentencing%25

 

—Lack of sleep (higher sentences on the Mondays after the start of Daylights Savings Time) See https://hbr.org/2017/02/sleep-deprived-judges-dole-out-harsher-punishments

 

—Hunger (judges are more severe right before a meal break) 

Cf. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/ pnas.1018033108 

with https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lunchtime-leniency/ and  https://www.annieduke.com/no-judges-dont-give-harsher-sentences-hungry-annies-newsletter-october-5-2018/

 

—Sports (move to continue when the judge’s football team loses) https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/09/judges-issue-longer-sentences-when-their-college-football-team-loses/498980/

 

—Attractiveness (the more unattractive the defendant, the higher the sentence) See

https://www.thelawproject.com.au/insights/attractiveness-bias-in-the-legal-systemhttps://www.thelawproject.com.au/insights/attractiveness-bias-in-the-legal-system

Whatever the import of these and other studies may be, they certainly try to scientifically test Jerome Frank’s belief that a judge’s decisions are but a part of their total behavior and that the process of making decisions is, in reality, a composite of the psychological, environmental, and socioeconomic factors that go into the development of the personality of the individual judge. 

The bottom line is if you have a sentencing set for 11:30 the day after the Dolphins play Kansas City on Monday night and the forecast calls for rain, you may want to move to continue.

Ft. Lauderdale courthouse still closed...

 ... apparently it will be closed all week.

Here's what it looked like a few days ago:

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Trump Sues Cohen in SDFLA

By John R. Byrne 

Our district is now home to another lawsuit filed by former President Trump, this one against his former attorney, Michael Cohen. Trump is seeking $500 million in damages. 

You can read the Complaint here. As of the time of this post, no judge had been assigned yet.

***Update***

The case has been assigned to Judge Gayles

Ft. Lauderdale federal courthouse closed…

 …due to flooding and rain. 

Can’t wait for that new courthouse!

I’m told judges and staff are all working from home and hearings are proceeding via Zoom. 

Stay dry!

"What have you done for mankind today?"

By John R. Byrne

It's a question that Ben Ferencz used to ask his children around the dinner table every night. Ferencz, who was the last living Nuremberg prosecutor, died last Friday in his sleep. He was 103. He had moved permanently to South Florida in 2019.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel, along with countless other media outlets, are covering Ferencz's life. He was only 27 years old when he prosecuted 22 members of the Nazi killing squads. The beginning of his opening statement, which the paper excerpts, is powerful. 

“It is with sorrow and with hope that we here disclose the deliberate slaughter of more than a million innocent and defenseless men, women, and children. This was the tragic fulfillment of a program of intolerance and arrogance. Vengeance is not our goal, nor do we seek merely a just retribution. We ask this Court to affirm by international penal action man’s right to live in peace and dignity regardless of his race or creed. The case we present is a plea of humanity to law.”

Ferencz is considered one of the founding fathers of the International Criminal Court. Remarkably, in 2011, he delivered the closing statement for the prosecution at the Court's first trial. What a legacy.