Juanita Brooks for John DeLorean

 

FOR THE DEFENSE SEASON 4, EPISODE 3
JUANITA BROOKS (center) FOR JOHN DELOREAN (right)
 

Season 4 of For the Defense continues today with Juanita Brooks for John DeLorean.  You can check it out on all podcast platforms (including Apple, Spotify and Google. All other platforms can be accessed on this website.) 

We launched a few weeks ago with Bruce Rogow for 2 Live Crew and Luther Campbell and followed up with Mark Geragos for Susan McDougal. 

At the end of the season, I will post the Florida CLE code.   

We will have new episodes every other Tuesday.  Upcoming episodes include:

• Gerry Goldstein (Deep Throat)
• Geoffrey Fieger (Dr. Jack Kevorkian)
• Brian Heberlig (Ali Sadr)
• Ed Shohat (Carlos Lehder)
• John Gleeson (Holloway Project)

Please send me your feedback -- and of course, subscribe, like and comment!  If you or a friend would like to receive these updates to your inbox, please have them sign up here. 

Thank you! --David

 

Hosted by David Oscar Markus and produced by rakontur
 

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

MLK Day

Federal Courts are closed today in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

If you are looking for something to read, check out this article from the Washington Post about workplace misconduct in the federal court system:

Leaders of the federal judiciary have had to backtrack after nearly three dozen law clerks and judge assistants affirmed in an informal survey that they had “witnessed wrongful conduct in the workplace.”

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said officials removed the question from a training registration form, sent last week to thousands of judiciary staffers who work for federal judges, but not before 34 of about 40 employees — nearly everyone who responded — indicated that they had observed some form of inappropriate behavior.

“This was an unfortunate administrative error. No more — no less,” David Sellers, a spokesman for the office, said in an email, adding that the question was too broad to elicit any meaningful information and that the number of responses was too small to reveal a trend. Some, Sellers said, referred to situations before employment with the federal court system.

The judiciary wants employees to “feel comfortable reporting any instances of wrongful conduct,” he said. “But a registration form was not the proper place to ask that type of question.”

Concerns about how the judiciary handles allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination and other misconduct in courthouses have for the past several years been part of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s annual report on the federal judiciary. In his 2021 year-end report, Roberts acknowledged ongoing scrutiny from Congress but said the independent judicial branch is best positioned to resolve workplace complaints.

The judiciary has put in place a robust reporting system, expanded the Office of Judicial Integrity and hired workplace relations directors in each of the federal circuits, Roberts said. He noted that a previous internal study “recognized the seriousness of several high-profile incidents, but found that inappropriate workplace conduct is not pervasive within the Judiciary.”

Congrats to Judge Raag Singhal!

He finally had his investiture today (he's been a federal judge since 12/19, but COVID delayed this event) and it was lovely. Judge Singhal is one of the good guys and it was evident from the glowing speakers and really wonderful turnout on a Friday afternoon of a holiday weekend during COVID. Sadly, my selfie game didn't really improve all that much.  Congrats, Judge!

A Conversation About the Constitution

By John Byrne

Interesting and fun conversation yesterday afternoon in Chief Judge Altonaga's courtroom.  Judge Altman interviewing Yale Professor Akhil Reed Amar about his book, "The Words That Made US:  America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840."  Takeaways--George Washington, not James Madison, was the true Father of the Constitution, and Professor Amar should get royalty checks for scripting portions of the movie Air Force One and The West Wing.  Chief Judge Altonaga, Judge Altman, and Judge Becerra were all students of Professor Amar at Yale Law School.

Chief Judge Altonaga issues new CARES Act Order

 You can read it here.

Basically it allows for video and telephonic hearings, but only for out of custody clients.  It does not continue jury trials.  The order is good for the next 90 days.

Congrats to your newest Magistrate Judge, Melissa Damian

Woohoo! This is great.

 

SDFLA Cert Grant

 This morning I posted some Supreme Court news, but I missed the big cert grant from this District.  Congrats to Andy Adler and Michael Caruso.  The case is Kemp v. United States. 

 The issue presented is: "Whether Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(1) authorizes relief based on a district court’s error of law."

The 11th Circuit opinion ruling against the defendant is here.   

This isn't their first trip to SCOTUS.  Adler argued last term in Terry v. United States.

Justice Sotomayor calls for Sentencing Commission to be formed

 She does so (joined by Justice Barrett) in this statement respecting the denial of certiorari. 

It is the responsibility of the Sentencing Commission to address this division to ensure fair and uniform application of the Guidelines. Cf. Braxton v. United States, 500 U. S. 344, 348 (1991). In March 2021, I wrote concerning an unresolved Circuit split over the proper interpretation of a Guideline. See Longoria v. United States, 592 U. S. ___. The Sentencing Commission lacked a quorum of voting members then, and it still does today. At this point, the Sentencing Commission has not had a quorum for three full years. As the instant petition illustrates, the resultant unresolved divisions among the Courts of Appeals can have direct and severe consequences for defendants’ sentences. I hope in the near future the Commission will be able to resume its important function in our criminal justice system.