SDFLA Judges appoint Ben Greenberg as U.S. Attorney

Attorney General Sessions appointed Ben Greenberg as U.S. Attorney, but that appointment expires on April 28.  The President still has not nominated a U.S. Attorney for this District.  So under 28 U.S.C. 546(d), the judges appointed Greenberg "until further Order of th[e] Court."

Two federal judges nominated in Florida, but not the SDFLA

But we did get a Marshal:

 If confirmed, Gadyaces S. Serralta of Florida will serve as the United States Marshal for the Southern District of Florida.  Gadyaces Serralta is currently a Major with the Miami-Dade Police Department, a position he has held since 2015.  In this capacity, he also serves as the Commander of the Palmetto Bay Policing Unit. Mr. Serralta began his law enforcement career with the Miami-Dade Police Department in 1990.  He served as a patrol officer and sergeant, working primarily with the Criminal Street Gangs Unit and Organized Crime Section, and then served as lieutenant in charge of the Robbery Intervention and Narcotics Detail before assuming his current position as Major. Mr. Serralta earned a B.S. in Criminal Justice Studies from Florida International University and a M.S. in Leadership from Nova Southeastern University.

Here are the two judicial nominees from the Middle and Northern Districts:

If confirmed, Wendy Williams Berger of Florida will serve as a District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.  Wendy Berger serves as a District Judge on the Fifth District Court of Appeal, where she has served since her appointment by the Governor in 2012. Prior to her elevation to the Court of Appeal, Judge Berger served for seven years as a Circuit Court Judge on the Seventh Judicial Circuit, where she handled the full range of civil, criminal, and death penalty cases. Before ascending to the bench, Judge Berger served for four years as Assistant General Counsel in the Executive Office of the Governor. Prior to joining the Governor's Office, Judge Berger spent seven years prosecuting criminal cases as an Assistant State Attorney. Judge Berger earned her B.S., cum laude, from Florida State University and her J.D. from the Florida State University College of Law, where she was a member of the Florida State University Law Review.

If confirmed, Allen C. Winsor of Florida will serve as a District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.  Allen Winsor serves as a Judge on the First District Court of Appeal. Prior to his appointment to the bench, Mr. Winsor served for nearly three years as the Solicitor General of the State of Florida, where he represented Florida's interests in State and Federal courts and argued two cases in the Supreme Court of the United States. Before joining the Florida Attorney General's Office, Mr. Winsor was a partner in the Tallahassee office of GrayRobinson, P.A., where he practiced civil, constitutional, and appellate litigation. Upon graduation from law school, Mr. Winsor served as a law clerk to Judge Ed Carnes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Mr. Winsor earned his B.S.B.A. from Auburn University and his J.D., with high honors, from the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, where he was inducted into the Order of the Coif and served as editor-in-chief of the Florida Law Review.

Trump nominates Georgia Supreme Court Justice Britt Grant to 11th Circuit

This nomination is for Julie Carnes' seat.  From the AJC:

President Donald Trump on Tuesday will nominate Georgia Supreme Court Justice Britt Grant to fill an upcoming vacancy on the federal appeals court in Atlanta, according to an administration official familiar with the nomination.
If approved by the Senate, Grant, 40, would succeed Judge Julie Carnes, who will become a senior judge in June. She was appointed to the state appellate court bench by Gov. Nathan Deal in January 2017.
Savannah attorney Pat O’Connor, former president of the State Bar of Georgia, said the nomination comes as no surprise to him.
“Through her service on the Georgia Supreme Court, Justice Grant has proven herself to be a bright star, both intellectually and in terms of judicial philosophy,” O’Connor said. “She’s thoughtful, articulate and thorough.”

“All of his comments have involved braggadocio and zero remorse."

That was Judge Robert Scola in sentencing Cocaine Cowboy Mickey Monday to an above-guideline sentence. From Curt Anderson at the AP:

A smuggler who flew loads of drugs for Colombian cartels during Miami’s “cocaine cowboys” era in the 1980s was sentenced to 12 years in prison Monday for using his old talents in a sophisticated auto theft ring.

U.S. District Judge Robert Scola imposed the relatively harsh sentence — more than four years higher than prosecutors recommended — because of the intricacy of the theft scheme, a total loss of about $1.8 million and because 72-year-old Mickey Munday boasted and bragged constantly for years about his cocaine smuggling past.

“All of his comments have involved braggadocio and zero remorse,” Scola said at a hearing.

Munday spent most of the 1990s in prison after pleading guilty to drug smuggling charges involving tons of cocaine from Pablo Escobar’s Medellin cartel and also the Cali cartel during the 1980s. He frequently talked about his exploits in media interviews, social media posts, and in a starring role in the 2006 documentary “Cocaine Cowboys.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Rothstein said Munday transferred his abilities to evade law enforcement to the auto theft ring because he couldn’t resist getting back into the criminal game.

“It wasn’t enough to talk about the past. He couldn’t resist the urge to get back in the criminal action,” Rothstein said. “He traded his wings for wheels.”

But at the hearing, Munday said much of what he said over the years was enhanced or fictional and that he was hoping to land a movie deal for his life story’s rights.

“I write about what I know. I combine stories,” he said, adding that he had no arrests after his original release from prison until 2017 for the car theft ring. “I have done everything I could to stay on the straight and narrow.”

Slowwwwwwww pace

The Supreme Court has decided only 18 cases this Term. That's very slow compared to other Terms. Some have said the new dynamics with Justice Gorsuch are causing the slow down. Others have said it's because there are huge and divisive cases, like gerrymandering and cell-site data. Here's a Reuters article about the lag in decisions:

Supreme Court experts expect the justices to issue a larger-than-normal number of 5-4 rulings in the coming months. That would increase the chances of conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, who sometimes sides with the court’s four liberals in major cases, casting the deciding votes.

“It’s reasonable to suggest there are going to be fewer unanimous decisions and more division,” said Nicole Saharsky, a lawyer who often has argued cases before the court.

Meantime, I love that this guy went to trial over videotaping a local and public meeting, which was held in the secretive federal courthouse (that doesn't allow photography). The locals should not be able to avoid the openness that usually attach to those types of meetings simply by going to a federal courthouse. I hope he appeals.