Judge Palermo's service today at noon

At the Gesu Church
118 N.E. Second Street
Miami, Florida 33132

Why we need cameras in the Supreme Court!

Everyone should be able to see how Justice Scalia questioned and commented about affirmative action:

Near the end of oral argument in a high-profile affirmative-action case Wednesday, conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia suggested that black students benefit from a “slower track” at less prestigious schools and are thus harmed by affirmative action. The comments come during a time of racial turmoil on campuses across the country, from Yale to the University of Missouri.

“There are those who contend that it does not benefit African-Americans to get them into the University of Texas, where they do not do well — as opposed to having them go to a less advanced school, a slower-track school where they do well,” Scalia said from the bench. “One of the briefs pointed out that most of the black scientists in this country don’t come from schools like the University of Texas. They come from lesser schools where they do not feel that they’re being pushed ahead in classes that are too fast for them.”

Scalia went on to say that it could be bad if the “really competent blacks” do not go to these “lesser” schools because they might then not become scientists. “I don’t think it stands to reason for the University of Texas to admit as many blacks as possible,” he concluded. 

Or what about Chief Justice Roberts?

Some of the Supreme Court justices on Wednesday seemed to question the utility of considering race in admissions at all, suggesting they may be backing away from their compromise on Fisher two years ago.

“What unique perspective does a minority student bring to a physics class?” Chief Justice John Roberts asked at one point, challenging UT’s contention that one of its goals was to attain classroom diversity. (In 2002, UT found that 90 percent of its classes had only one or zero black students in them.)

 Here's the actual exchange with Scalia:

JUSTICE SCALIA: There are there are
those who contend that it does not benefit
African Americans to to get them into the University
of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having
them go to a less advanced school, a less a
slower track school where they do well. One of one
of the briefs pointed out that that most of the
most of the black scientists in this country don't come
from schools like the University of Texas.
MR. GARRE: So this Court
JUSTICE SCALIA: They come from lesser
schools where they do not feel that they're that
they're being pushed ahead in in classes that are
too too fast for them.
MR. GARRE: This Court
JUSTICE SCALIA: I'm just not impressed by
the fact that that the University of Texas may have
fewer. Maybe it ought to have fewer. And maybe some
you know, when you take more, the number of blacks,
really competent blacks admitted to lesser schools,
turns out to be less. And and I I don't think
it it it stands to reason that it's a good thing
for the University of Texas to admit as many blacks as
possible. I just don't think
MR. GARRE: This Court heard and rejected
that argument, with respect, Justice Scalia, in the
Grutter case, a case that our opponents have and asked
this Court to overrule. If you look at the academic
performance of holistic minority admits versus the top
10 percent admits, over time, they they fare better.
And, frankly, I don't think the solution to
the problems with student body diversity can be to set
up a system in which not only are minorities going to
separate schools, they're going to inferior schools. I
think what experience shows, at Texas, California, and
Michigan, is that now is not the time and this is not
the case to roll back student body diversity in America.
Thank you, Your Honors.

Defendants in "Virtual Concierge" trial convicted

From the Sun-Sentinel:

Before jurors even took their seats — verdict in hand — Joseph Signore clenched shut his eyes.

The 51-year-old Palm Beach Gardens resident and former CEO then held on to his attorney, Michael Salnick, as a court official read each count: guilty, guilty, guilty.

Signore, his business partner and his soon-to-be ex-wife, Laura Grande-Signore, were found guilty by a jury Monday on charges that they bilked investors of $80 million through a virtual concierge business.

Signore was found guilty on 34 counts and his partner, Paul Schumack, of Coconut Creek, on 23 counts.

Grande-Signore, also of Palm Beach Gardens, was found guilty on seven counts for her involvement in the scheme. She was found not guilty of one count of fraud.

Jurors deliberated over the 34-count indictment for three days after listening during the trial, which went just longer than six weeks.

"Is Gollum good or evil?"

That's the headline of this nerdy fan-boy NY Times piece.

A Turkish man’s freedom may hang on a question put to a panel of “Lord of the Rings” experts: Is Gollum evil?

More significantly, was it an insult to compare Turkey’s president to the slimy, bug-eyed creature from the films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy?

A physician, Dr. Bilgin Ciftci, is accused of sharing a meme that juxtaposes Gollum, as played by Andy Serkis (and advanced digital effects), with Recep Tayyip Erdogan in several situations: while laughing, while surprised, while eating. Insulting the president is a crime under Turkish law.

The punishments were swift. Dr. Ciftci lost his job with the Public Health Institution of Turkey after sharing the meme, and he faces a two-year prison sentence, the Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman reported. After a judge said he did not know enough about the Tolkien creature to make an appropriate decision, five experts were ordered to conduct an investigation into Gollum’s moral character before the next phase of the trial begins in February.

Michael D. C. Drout, an English professor at Wheaton College who edits an annual review of Tolkien’s works, is observing the situation from America. He said that those experts will be assessing the most complicated character in the English writer’s already complex world.

“I don’t think there’s any consensus that Gollum is evil,” Mr. Drout said in an interview. “He is the most tragic character in ‘The Lord of the Rings.’ ”

Middle Earth, the place where Gollum began his life as a creature named Sméagol, is full of complex characters and allegiances. But a single gold ring, forged with a dark lord’s evil powers, has the power to rule them all. Sméagol catches a glimpse of the ring, murders for it, and possesses it for centuries until it is mislaid and found by another hobbit. Sméagol struggles to redeem himself, but his obsessive bloodthirst for the ring wins out. He accidentally destroys himself and the ring, but also saves Middle Earth in the process. (It is the hobbit hero Frodo who gets most of the credit.)

“The context is this: Gollum accidentally, not intentionally, saves the entire world,” Mr. Drout said.

RIP Shelby Highsmith

Senior United States District Judge Shelby Highsmith passed away yesterday.   Judge Highsmith served in the United States Army from 1949-1955 before graduating from the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Law with an LL.B. in 1958.  Judge Highsmith was in private practice in Missouri before relocating to Florida and entering private practice.  Prior to his appointment to the federal bench, Judge Highsmith served as chief legal advisor to the Governor's War on Crime Program, Florida, special counsel for the Florida Racing Commission, and served as a circuit judge for the 11th Judicial Circuit (Dade County) from 1970 to 1975.  Judge Highsmith joined the federal bench in 1991 where he served with distinction until his retirement on December 31, 2008.     


On a personal note, I was assigned to his courtroom as a young AFPD and learned a great deal from him. He had a big heart and took great interest in teaching the young lawyers before him how to practice law with dignity.