Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Acosta sworn in



Alex Acosta was sworn in today as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Great turnout in the Central Courtroom. Justice Alito -- who Acosta clerked for when he was on the Third Circuit -- spoke and administered the oath. When they were standing next to each other, they actually looked liked brothers. Striking similarity...

The program for the event had a quote that I often cite:

"The United States Attorney is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done. As such, he in a peculiar way and very definite sense the servant of the law, the twofold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer."
-- Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 88 (1935) (Sutherland, J.).

The AP already has coverage of it here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does this mean we have to start calling him "Aclito"?

Anonymous said...

One day as US Attorney and his office lost its first jury trial. A Not Guilty for a client of Federal Defenders Jan Smith and Tony Natale. When given the inaugural news, Acosta was heard to say, "What, me worry?"