Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Last post of the year

Happy New Year to all the SDFLA readers.  I really appreciate you and your comments, even the crazy anonymous ones.

If you are looking for some holiday reading, here are some articles:

1.    Esformes to continue with his appeal despite commutation, via Law.com.

2.    Prof. Tribe argues that Trump could obstruct justice with some of his pardons.

3.    Prof. Dershowitz and Prof. Hellman debate life tenure for SCOTUS Justices.

4.    A mural of RBG in Westport, MO, was vandalized.  So many mean and bad people out there... Here's hoping for better in 2021.

Monday, December 28, 2020

Quiet week

 It's a quiet week in courthouses around the country.  But that didn't stop Rumpole from going after the Florida Supreme Court for doing away with Times New Roman in this order.  It's a really strange order that goes into effect at 12:03 January 1.  12:03??  It also requires two awful fonts -- Arial or Bookman Old Style.  Weird.

But Times New Roman is a bad font for legal documents.  The U.S. Supreme Court uses Century Schoolbook, and that's the font that should be the default for all legal pleadings.  There's lots out there explaining why Times New Roman is terrible (here, here, here, and here for example).

Anyway, this is what you get when it's a slow court week.  

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Happy Holidays

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.

It's been an absolutely crazy year.  One of the issues that has come up is whether local governments can set curfews during the pandemic.  Judge Raag Singhal heard a challenge from some Broward bars and restaurants to the Broward midnight curfew, and they won.  From the Sun-Sentinel:

A federal court has rejected Broward County’s curfew on bars and restaurants, raising the possibility that nightclubs in much of Florida could operate through the night as COVID-19 rages.

The court specifically cited Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order in September that removed all restrictions on bars and restaurants as the state moved to Phase 3 of the coronavirus recovery.

Broward County’s rules, prohibiting the sale or alcohol between midnight and 5 a.m., violate the governor’s order and are “speculative and arbitrary,” wrote U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal of the Southern District of Florida.

Since DeSantis reopened the economy, COVID-19 cases have soared around the state, particularly in South Florida. Crowds of maskless partiers have become common in the region’s popular entertainment districts.

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

A holiday miracle (UPDATED 12/24)

President Trump commuted Phillip Esformes' 20 year sentence today:

Philip Esformes – Today, President Trump commuted the term of imprisonment of Philip Esformes, while leaving the remaining aspects of his sentence, including supervised release and restitution, intact. This commutation is supported by former Attorneys General Edwin Meese and Michael Mukasey, as well as former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson. In addition, former Attorneys General Edwin Meese, John Ashcroft, and Alberto Gonzalez, as well as other notable legal figures such as Ken Starr, have filed in support of his appeal challenging his conviction on the basis of prosecutorial misconduct related to violating attorney-client privilege.

While in prison, Mr. Esformes, who is 52, has been devoted to prayer and repentance and is in declining health.

Fascinating. Some open questions -- does the appeal continue because he is still on supervised release? Does this apply to the hung count as well or is that still alive? In any event, this is HUGE news in a case that the government touted at the time as the largest health care fraud case in history and one in which he was serving a 20 year sentence.   

12/24 UPDATE -- Trump issued more pardons, including for Mary McCarty, Cesar Lozada, and James Batmasian.  From the press release:

Mary McCarty — President Trump granted Mary McCarty a full pardon. Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Christopher Ruddy are among those supportive of Ms. McCarty. Ms. McCarty was a longtime public servant in Palm Beach, Florida, serving as one of its County Commissioners. In 2009, she pled guilty to one count of honest services fraud. The Supreme Court has since interpreted that statute more narrowly, meaning that Ms. McCarty’s conduct might not be criminally prosecuted today.

Cesar Lozada — President Trump granted a full pardon to Cesar Lozada. This act of clemency is supported by U.S. Representative-elect Maria Elvira Salazar and members of Mr. Lozada’s community. Mr. Lozada, an immigrant from Cuba, started a small business cleaning and servicing pools in Miami-Dade County. Since then, his business, now a pool equipment company, has grown and employs dozens of people. Today’s pardon addresses a mistake Mr. Lozada made in 2004 of conspiring to distribute marijuana, for which Mr. Lozada took full responsibility, served his sentence of 14 months in prison and 3 years supervised release, and paid a $10,000 fine. Mr. Lozada volunteers on weekends at a charity mission and serves food to the poor.

James Batmasian — President Trump granted a full pardon to James Batmasian. Mr. Batmasian’s pardon is supported by Representative Brian Mast, Alice Johnson, and former Masters Champion Bernhard Langer, among many others from the South Florida community that Mr. Batmasian has done so much to serve through his extensive charitable works.

Mr. Batmasian runs an extensive property management business in South Florida. Over a three-year period from 2001 to 2003, Mr. Batmasian made overtime payments without withholding for income taxes or FICA contributions. While illegal, Mr. Batmasian recorded all of these payments and made no attempt to hide them when confronted by IRS investigators. In 2008, Mr. Batmasian pled guilty to willful failure to collect and remit payroll taxes. Mr. Batmasian accepted full responsibility for his actions, fully repaid the IRS the money he owed, and served his 8-month sentence.

Bonus episode of For the Defense: Hank Asbill for Gov. Bob McDonnell


Today, we released a bonus episode of For the Defense, in which I interview Hank Asbill (left in the picture below) about his representation of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (right).

This episode was recorded during my White Collar Law class at the University of Miami School of Law and at the end, you’ll hear questions from the students.

You can catch this episode and all episodes on our podcast website here. The Apple platform is available here, and all other platforms can be accessed here.

Thanks again for your feedback on Season 1. For the Florida lawyers who are listening, you can obtain CLE credit for listening to Season 1. Once you finish listening to the whole season, just shoot me an email, and I will send you the course number. In addition, this bonus episode has been approved for 1.5 hours of Florida CLE credit. After you listen, just email me for the separate course number.

We are preparing Season 2 now, and we are planning on launching in mid-January. The first episode of S2 will be with Alan Dershowitz on the OJ Simpson trial. I think you’ll find it very interesting.

If you or a friend would like to receive these updates, please have them sign up here

Thank you again for your continued support! --David