SCOTUS in June

 Somehow there are still 33 cases left to decide at SCOTUS this month.  This morning, the Court will announce some of those 33 decisions.  You can follow all of the action at SCOTUSblog.com as they will live blog the cases as they come out at 10am.

The Supreme Court typically finishes issuing opinions by the end of June, but I really don't see how they do it this Term.  Maybe they won't get as long a summer vacation this year.  I still don't understand why the High Court is closed all summer... but that's just me.

Defense wins

 Congrats to Frank Rubio, Richard Klugh, and Frank's two sons for their not guilty verdict across the board for an eye doctor charged with fraud before Judge Ruiz.  The jury came back quickly.

And to a group of defense lawyers, led by Kate Taylor of the public defender's office and including Marissel Descalzo and Paul Petruzzi who obtained a dismissal before Judge Altman in a boat case for lack of jurisdiction. Here's the order.

Judge Lurana Snow's retirement party

 Congrats to Judge Snow on her retirement.  She had her party last week, with wonderful speeches for Judge Dimitrouleas, Judge Torres, and Bruce Zimet.  Here's some photos from the fiesta:

"The Foolishness of Our Federal Criminal Code"

 That's the title of a piece I co-wrote with my daughter Kate Markus for the Daily Business Review.  It starts like this:

There’s been a lot of talk about overcriminalization in recent years. Prosecutors are going after folks for everything you can imagine. In one famous example, retired race car driver Bobby Unser was prosecuted by the feds for driving his snowmobile on protected federal land. Unser had gotten lost during a snowstorm and was seeking shelter. Closer to home, members of a religious outreach group were arrested and prosecuted for feeding the homeless in a Fort Lauderdale park because they violated a food sharing law.

Because our trial system has turned almost exclusively into a system of pleas (97% of cases resolve by way of plea agreement), one might think that all of these prosecutions must be justified. That could not be further from the truth. The system has made the risks of trial so daunting—with a defendant likely to receive a sentence many times longer if he has the audacity to declare his innocence and proceed to trial—that most defendants fall on the sword and plead guilty, even if they are innocent.

The list of federal crimes has become so lengthy that it is unknown how many there actually are. This is in stark contrast to the federal criminal code in 1790, which included just 30 crimes. By the 1980s, that number was more than 3,000. Although the Department of Justice (DOJ) has not catalogued all of the crimes on the books now, there are over 300,000 statutes and regulations that carry federal criminal penalties.

BONUS EPISODE OF FOR THE DEFENSE: BARRY POLLACK FOR RIC BLAKE (Chicken Antitrust case)

    It's Bonus Episode time -- we've got former NACDL president Barry Pollack discussing the chicken antitrust trials, which have garnered quite a bit of press because the original trial involved 10 defendants, which hung.  Then the government decided to try it a second time against all 10 defendants even though the majority of jurors voted to acquit.  After a second lengthy trial, the jury hung again as to all 10 defendants.  The government announced it would try them a third time, which led the district judge in Denver to call in the head of the antitrust division to explain why that was the right thing to do.  The government then dismissed as to 5 of the defendants but decided to try for a third time the 5 remaining individuals.  That third trial starts next week (June 6, 2022).  The head antitrust prosecutor has said a third trial is needed because he is not part of the "chickenshit club."  Have a listen to Barry explain the twists and turns of these two very interesting criminal price-fixing trials on your favorite podcast platform -- all of which are available at our website here.

Thanks again for listening.

--David

 

Hosted by David Oscar Markus and produced by rakontur
 

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