The greatest form of flattery?

Lawyers are used to it...  but this is incredible:



The discarded logo was a sight to see. And now this. Fun times.

At least he got an hour for lunch.

Even though this order is a few months old, it is making the rounds right now... H/t @bradheath from USA Today for posting it on Twitter.  According to Heath, this juror was late for jury duty, which resulted in this order:

That was fast: Kosher meals case decided two days after argument.

Judge Pryor, writing for a unanimous 11th Circuit after oral argument earlier in the week, upheld Judge Seitz' order granting summary judgment to the United States, requiring Florida to make kosher meals available to Jewish inmates.  The writing was on the wall after the OA.  From the intro:

 This appeal requires us to decide whether the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc et seq., prevents the Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections from denying kosher meals to inmates whose sincere religious beliefs require them to keep kosher. After the United States sued the Secretary to compel the Department to provide kosher meals, but before the entry of an injunction, the Secretary voluntarily created a religious diet program. Even so, the Secretary continues to insist that the Department need not provide kosher meals because denying them is the least restrictive means of furthering a compelling governmental interest in containing costs. But the Secretary’s argument lacks any support in the record. We affirm the summary judgment for the United States and the permanent injunction requiring the Secretary to provide kosher meals to the inmates.

Judge Federico Moreno named to Executive Committee

What a big (and well-deserved) honor.  Chief Justice John Roberts has formed the executive committee of the Judicial Conference to include:

Judge Paul J. Barbadoro, Chair   District of New Hampshire

Judge Robert James Conrad	Western District of North Carolina
Chief Judge Merrick B. Garland	DC Circuit
Federico A. Moreno	Southern District of Florida
Chief Judge William Jay Riley	Eighth Circuit
Chief Judge Sidney R. Thomas	Ninth Circuit
Martha Vazquez	District of New Mexico
James C. Duff	AO Director

Thin.

That was Judge Rosenbaum in this concurrence yesterday.  Here's the whole intro:

Johnny Marshall has already spent seventeen years in jail for a $261 robbery that he very well may not have committed. And after our decision today, he may spend the rest of his life there. But Marshall’s attorney almost certainly could have prevented Marshall’s conviction, had he done what any other competent attorney would have on this record: pursued a motion to suppress the illegally obtained sole eye-witness’s identification of Marshall, an identification that the same witness’s earlier description of Marshall squarely contradicted.
I write separately because I believe that Marshall was denied effective assistance of counsel, in violation of the Sixth Amendment. Nevertheless, despite the weak evidence underlying Marshall’s conviction and the substantial error his trial counsel made, I agree with the Majority’s ultimate conclusion that 28 U.S.C. § 2254 offers Marshall no relief. Whether because of § 2254’s strict statutory exhaustion requirements or its highly deferential standard of review of state-court decisions, we have no choice but to deny Marshall’s claim. At this point, any potential relief Marshall might obtain must come from the state, such as an act of clemency by the state’s executive branch.
I.
Thin. That’s a generous way to describe the evidence against Marshall. The only evidence tying Marshall to the robbery consists of Geraldine Jenkins’s identification of him. But Jenkins—the Pizza Hut employee who was present during the robbery—identified Marshall within about an hour of providing a description of the robber that bore about as much resemblance to Marshall’s actual appearance as broccoli does to carrots. Both are in the same general category—men and vegetables, respectively—but that’s where the similarities end.