Judge Moreno moving on up?

Chief Justice Rehnquist spent some time in the hospital this week and the rumors are starting to fly once more about his replacement. Judge Moreno is mentioned in this USA Today article.

Miami-Dade school employees arrested for oxycontin

For those wondering who Alex Acosta is, he's our new U.S. Attorney, and he's started with a bang: 29 people -- mostly Miami-Dade school employees -- were arrested today in an oxycontin ring: "Of those charged in an 84-count federal grand jury indictment unsealed Thursday, five are Miami-Dade school bus drivers, 13 are school bus attendants and one is a former school bus driver now driving a city bus. Two school custodians, a cook and a cashier were also charged, along with a Miami doctor and five other people." Read more in this Sun-Sentinel article. The article says more arrests are coming and Acosta stated, "We felt it prudent and necessary to take action with the information we already had.'' Although no teachers have been arrested, this will be an interesting story to follow and I'm sure the teacher blogs (like South Florida Educators) will be discussing it...

No more Steel Hector?

Steel Hector & Davis has always been known as a huge Southern District powerhouse. But it looks like it won't be around for long. According to today's Business Review, Steel "is close to finalizing a deal to merge with Cleveland-based Squire Sanders & Dempsey." According to the article, Steel is going to be "gobbled up" because it has "suffered financial setbacks recently and has been plagued by partner defections amid much speculation about its ability to stay afloat."

Crystalizing the DeFede debate and a SDFLA mention

Jessica M. Walker of the Miami Daily Business Review wrote a nice piece (you need a password to access) this morning exploring the legality of the DeFede/Teele tapes. And I'm not just saying that because she mentioned this blog and my debate with Prof. Froomkin:

The 1981 act has now become scrutinized in the media, on the Internet and among attorneys in the wake of Teele’s suicide and DeFede’s almost instantaneous firing. Froomkin and Miami criminal defense attorney David Oscar Markus have been debating the legal points of the issue on their Web logs, with Markus arguing that the taping was legal. Froomkin insists that it wasn’t. . . .

Markus ag[ued] that DeFede lacked any criminal intent. “There is a well carved out exception in the law that if you do something out of necessity, you are not criminally liable for doing so,” Markus said. He cited the example of a driver exceeding the speed limit so he could quickly deliver a heart attack victim to the hospital. “If DeFede was taping for some better good, then I think he was doing the right thing and there was no criminal intent,” Markus said.

Very cool that the blog was cited! The rest of the article is excellent, citing Dan Gelber (DeFede's lawyer), Bruce Rogow, Michael Froomkin, and Thomas Julin.

Who is Alex Acosta?

So wonders the Daily Business Review this morning in a piece (you need a password to access) about the new acting U.S. Attorney in the Southern District, R. Alexander Acosta:

"Who is Alex Acosta? That’s the question South Florida attorneys are asking about the new acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

“No one knows anything about him,” said Brian Tannebaum, president of the Miami chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys.

“I haven’t met him yet.” Kathleen Williams, the top federal public defender in South Florida, said, “I have never met the U.S. attorney. He has not practiced in the area, so none of us knows him.” . . .

But what South Florida attorneys do know is causing them some concern — namely that Acosta has never tried a case and has little experience in criminal law. “The word on the street is that he has no criminal law experience,” Tannebaum said. “I would like a U.S. attorney who has experience in criminal justice … who has some working knowledge of criminal justice."

If you know anything about him, please use the notes to fill us in (you can even be anonymous if you'd like).