Federalists and privacy

The Federalist Society will be discussing cell tower data and privacy this Friday.  I will be debating the Florida Solicitor General, Amit Agarwal, who was my opponent in the en banc cell tower case of U.S. v. Quartavious Davis.  It's being moderated by Judge Raag Singhal.  Should be fun:

How many innocent people are in federal prison?

Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski told 60 Minutes that about 1% or over 20,000 innocent people are in federal prison.  "That's a lot of people!" The number is almost definitely higher and yet many federal judges aren't doing as much as Kozinski to check the executive.  And boy do we need a strong judiciary right now with AG Sessions.

We should have our U.S. Attorney nominee this week.  It will be interesting to see if that person is willing to stand up to Trump/Sessions or whether they will go back to the old ways where there is limited discovery, no exhibit lists, etc. etc.

It appears that in the Ft. Lauderdale shooting case that the prosecution is handing over all of the evidence.  From Paula McMahon:

 Prosecutors handling the case against a man accused of fatally shooting five people and wounding six others at Fort Lauderdale’s international airport are still turning over massive amounts of evidence to the defense, they said in court on Friday.
In the coming weeks, they plan to hand over electronic evidence from computers and phones used by Esteban Santiago before the Jan. 6 mass shooting.
Both sides said they are still interviewing numerous potential witnesses who may have information about the shooting and Santiago’s state of mind.
The defense team, from the Federal Public Defender’s office, said Santiago, 27, is continuing to take medication for schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. They said his condition appears to have stabilized and he remains legally competent to stand trial.

It also appears that Haitian coup leader Guy Philippe will plead guilty today.

Dave Barry to speak at the District's Bench & Bar conference

It looks like a good conference, with lots of our judges speaking and participating. It's Friday May 12 and there are interesting panels. It should be revealing to hear what the judges have to say about topics like criminal sentencing and legal writing. And Dave Barry is always great.

Melgen trial winding down

Dr. Salomon Melgen's trial is winding down... It's in week 7 and closing arguments are expected next week. From the AP:

The Medicare fraud trial of a prominent Florida eye doctor tied to corruption charges against New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez wound toward its conclusion Tuesday with his lawyers portraying him as an innovative physician who didn't give up on his hard-to-treat patients.

Dr. Salomon Melgen is charged with 76 counts for allegedly stealing up to $105 million from Medicare between 2008 and 2013 by performing useless tests and procedures on elderly and disabled patients.

But Dr. Dana Deupree, testifying Tuesday for the defense, disagreed with the prosecution's contention. Going through numerous patient records, he testified that Melgen's treatments may have been the only hope many patients had for saving their sight. The Clearwater, Florida, ophthalmologist said that although some of the tests performed by Melgen and his staff could have been done better and that he might have performed different procedures, Melgen's work was medically sound.

Deupree, who is expected to be the final defense witness, testified that Melgen's attorneys have paid him $135,000 over several years to consult on this case and prior civil lawsuits.

What's next for Trump and the Judiciary?

Justice Gorsuch takes his seat today on the Supreme Court.  But there are still a ton of vacancies around the country at the District and Circuit levels (as well as U.S. Attorney positions).  David Lat at Above the Law takes a look at what's going to be happening:

The main potential stumbling block to progress on lower-court nominees: “blue slips.” As explained by prominent conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt in the Washington Post:

The blue slip is simply the piece of paper that is sent to the senators from the home state of every judicial nominee. If a senator has no objection to the nominee, the blue slip (so named for the color of the paper) is sent back to the Judiciary Committee chairman with an indication of approval. If the senator objects, the paper is either sent back indicating disapproval or not returned at all.

Under current Senate practice, if the blue slip isn’t returned, the nominee doesn’t move forward. Hugh Hewitt isn’t a fan of this de facto veto power enjoyed by home-state senators; he condemns it as “simply and obviously deeply anti-democratic,” and wants Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to, well, give blue slips the nuclear treatment.

Senator Grassley recently told Roll Call that his Committee remains “committed to” current blue-slip practice, but noted that blue slips aren’t sacrosanct. This strikes me as totally reasonable: blue slips can be honored for now, and used by senators to stop truly unqualified nominees. But if the Democrats abuse blue slips by using them to stop qualified nominees whose ideology they just don’t like — basically what Republicans did to the eminently qualified Merrick Garland, and what Democrats tried to do to the eminently qualified Neil Gorsuch — then it might be time to shred the blue slip.