Irma

The SDFla courthouses will be closed Thursday and Friday. The award banquets on Thursday night and Saturday night have also been cancelled. Stay safe!

All rise!

As you get ready for Irma... here is your moment of Zen: Judge Sotomayor in her Yankees' robe sitting in "Judge's Chambers":

Judge’s Chambers: Supreme Edition. pic.twitter.com/64JJ4kMNfz

— MLB GIFS (MLBGIFs) September 1, 2017

— #NFL 0 For Sale 🏈⚽️ (@NFL_0) September 1, 2017

Legal Awards Season

It's Legal Awards Season in Miami.

The Federal Bar Association has its big gala next Thursday, September 7 at the Four Seasons.  The big award is called "The Ned" after Edward B. Davis.  I have a soft spot for this award because it is named after the judge that I clerked for.  Judge Davis was simply the best.  Besides being an absolute awesome judge, he was a great man.  I am proud that the FBA is awarding this year's Ned to Donald L. Graham.  Judge Davis always loved Judge Graham and would be happy about this.

The Dade County Bar Association is also having its big party on September 9 at the JW Marriott.  The Presidential Award winners are: Sec. of Labor Alex Acosta, Judge Robert Luck, and Judge Lisa Walsh.  The David Dyer Professionalism Award is going to Judge Kathleen Williams, and the Johnnie Ridgely Award is for Judge Beth Bloom.

An all-star cast!

"We hold that neither robbery, armed robbery, nor use of a firearm in the commission of a felony under Florida law is categorically a 'violent felony.'"

"We hold that neither robbery, armed robbery, nor use of a firearm in the commission of a felony under Florida law is categorically a 'violent felony.'"  That was the 9th Circuit, acknowledging a split with the 6-5 en banc 11th Circuit case that the blog discussed last week.  HT: How Appealing.

I'm starting to think it would be more fun to practice out in California.

What do you all think about a judicial law clerk tweeting about a decision that his judge wrote while he was clerking.  Here's a string from Andrew Case about the Apraio trial and his thoughts on the pardon.

VW exec gets higher sentence than prosecutors request

Although prosecutors asked for 3 years, a federal judge sentenced VW exec James Liang to 40 months. If the executive branch is asking for a particular sentence, that should be the ceiling for judges... but that's not the law unfortunately.

From Law360:

A Michigan federal judge on Friday sentenced a Volkswagen AG engineer who pled guilty to charges stemming from the diesel emissions scandal to 40 months in prison, slightly longer than the three-year prison term sought by prosecutors.

After months of delays, U.S. District Judge Sean Cox sentenced James Liang to three years and four months in prison. Liang, accused of helping facilitate the installation of so-called defeat devices to skirt U.S. emissions testing in about half a million vehicles, pled guilty in September to a count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, commit wire fraud and violate the Clean Air Act.

Liang was also fined $200,000, due immediately, more than the $20,000 fine requested by prosecutors. He also agreed to be deported to Germany after finishing his prison sentence. Liang is a German citizen.

At the hearing on Friday morning, Judge Cox said that Liang was a member of a long-term conspiracy and that the scandal was “a stunning fraud on American consumers,” a courthouse observer told Law360.

Liang’s attorney, Daniel V. Nixon of Byrne & Nixon LLP, said at the hearing that Liang was the first person to accept responsibility for what happened and that he had cooperated with prosecutors and agreed to testify against another VW executive, Oliver Schmidt, if Schmidt’s case had gone to trial, according to the observer.