If you are looking for some free CLE credits regarding e-discovery....

I'm told that there is a criminal component involving the seizure of a cell phone pursuant to a search warrant, the government’s lengthy efforts to unlock the seized phone, self-incrimination issues re: an i-Phone password, and a Rule 41 return of property issue.

The Palm Beach County Chapter of the Federal Bar Association

proudly presents:

Towards A New E-Discovery Paradigm

A Zoom Webinar featuring:

THE HONORABLE WILLIAM MATTHEWMAN

U.S. MAGISTRATE JUDGE

FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

Presentation to be preceded by the swearing-in of the Palm Beach Chapter Officers

for the 2020-2021 year by:

THE HONORABLE KENNETH MARRA

SENIOR U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE

FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

September 18, 2020, AT NOON

FROM YOUR COMPUTER – BY ZOOM

This event is FREE for all attendees.

0.5 CLE credit requested

 RSVP by September 17, 2020 at noon to Traci Willard (twillard@mrachek-law.com) 

 The Zoom Meeting ID and Password will be sent by 3 p.m. on September 17^th. If you do not receive the invitation by 5 p.m., please send an email to both twillard@mrachek-law.com and adrumm@carltonfields.com

Did the Dems win the fight against DeSantis regarding the Florida Supreme Court?

 Well, the challenge was successful and Renatha Francis is out.  The Governor appointed Jamie Grosshans, 41, in her place.  Grosshams was appointed to the county bench when she was 38.  Of the choices DeSantis had from the JNC list, many said that Grosshans was the most right wing and her reputation is certainly more conservative than Francis.  Does anyone have any experience before her either in county, circuit, or the 5th?

Meantime, DeSantis said that Francis should now be considered for a federal seat in the Southern District of Florida.  Currently David Leibowitz is still up for Judge Moreno's seat, but there has been no movement there in a while.  Leibowitz is a great guy; smart and personable.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  If Biden is elected in November, will there be enough time for Trump to fill Moreno's seat?  

Phase 2 in Miami-Dade

Things are starting to reopen.  We even had sports this weekend.  School may reopen before October 5.  And the rumors are flying around that Chief Judge Moore may update his order on grand juries to allow them to reopen before the Jan 2021 date.  But before we get too optimistic and happy, check out these horrific numbers from the prison system, via the Marshall Project:

Deaths

The first known COVID-19 death of a prisoner was in Georgia when Anthony Cheek died on March 26. Cheek, who was 49 years old, had been held in Lee State Prison near Albany, a hotspot for the disease.  Since then, at least 1,016 other prisoners have died of coronavirus-related causes.  By Sept. 8, the total number of deaths had risen by 5 percent in a week.

There have been at least 1,017 deaths from coronavirus reported among prisoners.

Florida is second only to Texas in number of prisoner deaths.  And the death rate in prison is 130% higher than in general in Florida.  This doesn't account for the number of deaths by staff members, which is also extremely high in Florida (75 as of now).  Extremely sad.

Florida Supreme Court says Gov. DeSantis must appoint new Justice by Monday (UPDATED)

 Read the unanimous opinion here.

UPDATE -- while DeSantis lost this battle, he won a big one in the en banc 11th Circuit.  William Pryor writes the majority opinion backing DeSantis' position that felons cannot vote until they have paid all court costs, fees, etc.  Judges Jordan, Martin, and Jill Pryor all write dissents.  Judge Jordan's ends this way:

Our predecessor, the former Fifth Circuit, has been rightly praised for its landmark decisions on voting rights in the 1950s and 1960s. See generally Jack Bass, Unlikely Heroes: The Dramatic Story of the Southern Judges Who Translated the Supreme Court’s Brown Decision Into a Revolution for Equality 259–77 (1981). I doubt that today’s decision—which blesses Florida’s neutering of Amendment 4—will be viewed as kindly by history.

Pryor responds like this:

I write separately to explain a difficult truth about the nature of the judicial role. Our dissenting colleagues predict that our decision will not be “viewed as kindly by history” as the voting-rights decisions of our heroic predecessors. Jordan Dissent at 189 (citing Jack Bass, Unlikely Heroes: The Dramatic Story of the Southern Judges Who Translated the Supreme Court’s Brown Decision Into a Revolution for Equality (1981)). But the “heroism” that the Constitution demands of judges—modeled so well by our predecessors—is that of “devotion to the rule of law and basic morality.” Patrick E. Higginbotham, Conceptual Rigor: A Cabin for the Rhetoric of Heroism, 59 Tex. L. Rev. 1329, 1332 (1981) (reviewing Bass, Unlikely Heroes, supra). As a distinguished colleague presciently warned decades ago, there is a “genuine risk” that later judges will “easily misunderstand” this lesson. Id. Our duty is not to reach the outcomes we think will please whomever comes to sit on the court of human history. The Constitution instead tasks us with “administering the rule of law in courts of limited jurisdiction,” id. at 1343, which means that we must respect the political decisions made by the people of Florida and their officials within the bounds of our Supreme Law, regardless of whether we agree with those decisions. And in the end, as our judicial oath acknowledges, we will answer for our work to the Judge who sits outside of human history.

Barbara Lagoa makes Trump’s short list for SCOTUS

 You can watch Trump’s press conference here where he lists all of the candidates here, including our very own Barbara Lagoa. The other Florida short-lister is Carlos Muniz on the Florida Supreme Court.