JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG

WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM. Winner of the prestigious Cushing Left Anterior Descending Artery Award.

Thursday, August 27, 2020

THE WEEK THAT WAS

 Let's wrap this week up. 

Kudos to our Clerk Harvey Ruvin who was groovin to an ABA award (The Yegge Award for outstanding contribution to judicial administration which is sort of like the Nobel Peace Prize but for Clerks)  for dragging the Clerk's office into the 21st century with electronic filing (shhhhhsh...we won't tell about misdemeanor criminal paper files if you don't). 

The NBA is back in session thank goodness. We could hardly bear the thought of spoiled millionaires who work for spoiled billionaires not playing a game during this time of crisis. Not that one of them could hold a candle to the 69-70 Knicks. Dollar Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere, Walt "Clyde" Frazier, Cazzie Russell and Dick Barnett,  and of course the Captain Willis Reed. Add in Phil Jackson, and Reed coming out in Game Seven of the Championship and scoring the first  four  points against the Lakers and Wilt Chamberlin, after Reed missed Game six with a torn thigh muscle, and you have the makings of an all-time great team. 

But none of the players today can measure up against the greatest basketball player of all time- Earl "The Goat" Manigualt. 

The Florida Supreme Court told Governor Ron No Mask DeSantis to drop dead. They invalidated the appointment of Judge Renatha Francis. Basically The Supremes said "an appointment is an appointment is an appointment". It begins the day it is made and not at some future date when the appointee is eligible. In Judge Francis' case, after a long and extensive search for the most experienced and qualified candidate to be a Justice of The Supreme Court, DeSantis, decided, for no other reason (*cough* cough*) that Judge Francis had the right stuff. Uno problemo: she did not meet the technical qualifications to be a justice, namely a member of the Bar for ten years. But DeSantis decided a way around that technicality by deciding that Judge Francis would not be sworn in until the ten year mark passed this fall. The Supremes said no way Ron and invalidated the appointment. 

This of course places into question the Governor's plan to nominate several promising law students for the 3rd DCA once they graduate, pass the bar, and are sworn in as lawyers. 

If DeSantis is able to re-nominate Judge Francis after she crosses that milestone and is a member of the Bar for ten long years, then wouldn't you want to be a fly on the wall in chambers? Sort adds some tension to the Supreme Court lunch room. There's always Backwoods Crossing for a meal. 

It has been a long strange week in a long and strange year. We dodge a bullet with Hurricane Laura and we still have a Governor who does not believe masks matter.  

Stay Safe. Stay Sound. Stay Sane. 


18 comments:

Anonymous said...

"At this point, the only legally appropriate and available remedy would be to require the Governor immediately to appoint a constitutionally eligible person from the JNC’s existing certified list of nominees. See Pleus, 14 So. 3d at 946.

Yet in her initial petition and in her reply, the Petitioner has asked for something else: that the JNC reconvene and certify a new list from the existing applicant pool, and that the Governor then be compelled to select an appointee from that new list. The Petitioner’s filings characterize this as “the only remedy that complies with the Florida Constitution” and as “the only appropriate and fair remedy in this case.” What the Petitioner seeks is fundamentally different from the remedy that we are authorized to grant in the circumstances presented. And more than that, the authorized remedy would defeat the Petitioner’s stated objectives in filing this action.

It is not our role to impose a remedy that the Petitioner has not requested and that is inconsistent with the Petitioner’s stated goals. This is the parties’ case, not ours. Accordingly, we must deny the petition."

https://efactssc-public.flcourts.org/casedocuments/2020/985/2020-985_disposition_150471_d03.pdf

Do they actually say in the decision that the appointment is invalidated and won't be accepted and that DeSantis has to renominate somebody immediately? They say that because the petitioner did not ask for that remedy, they will not order it and so they denied the petition. Even though they accept the premise that Francis is ineligible, they say that because the petitioner did not ask for the right kind of remedy, they are not going to do anything about it. So even though they make a pretense of scolding DeSantis, it sounds like they are still letting him have his way.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, despite the finger-wagging, looks like the Supremes aren't going to do shit about the wrongful appointment.

"However, the Supreme Court refused to block Francis from taking the bench, saying State Rep. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, erred when she asked that the search for a new justice begin from scratch.

The error was a fatal one, the Supreme Court said when it threw out Thompson's lawsuit.

As a result, it is likely Francis, who doesn't meet the requirements to be a high court justice, will become one in late September."

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/2020/08/27/florida-court-ron-desantis-exceeded-authority-in-justice-choice/5644266002/

Anonymous said...

Who can we write to stop Thomas Rebull from being appointed by the governor to the new open seat? Rebull is horrible!

Anonymous said...

Lets petition the Governor to appoint another Supreme Court Judge who is unqualified to replace Francis....Aponte meets that standard. And her ignorance can not do much harm in that she is only one of seven.

Anonymous said...

Pleading in the alternative would have gone far here because you cannot trust judges to do the right thing.

Give me a fucking break. She simply is not qualified and has no business on that court... other than being super conservative.

Rumpole said...

10:24. I disagree. I think we are losing a valuable chance to have a judge who learned from his mistakes and who has a real opportunity to be a great judge I’m the future.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps he learned not to treat a pro se defendant so poorly. But he has not learned that not every defendant is scum who deserves the max. I had several cases where he did not even pretend to be fair. Appointing him is a slap in the face to the voters- those geniuses. I wonder if he lost because people realized he was a jerk, or because his opponent was Hispanic. I suspect the latter, which is sad. I hope she rises to the occasion and becomes a fair judge. I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and my best wishes.

Anonymous said...

The right thing for her to do is to resign the seat, even if she applies again and is appointed. Any close cases in the Supreme Court will be suspect and subject to challenge if she is the deciding vote, especially considering that the majority of her future colleagues have ruled that her appointment was not done according to the constitution’s requirements.

Anonymous said...

As Justice Labarga noted in a concurrence, if the object of this appointment was diversity, there were six experienced black applicants, all of whom were constitutionally eligible for appointment. The Supreme Court JNC passed over all of these for Francis, who offered a self-serving interpretation of the Florida Constitution rejected by the Florida Supreme Court. The end now justifies the means--the Governor exceeded his authority, the Florida Supreme Court acknowledges it but has gone along with his selection. And it faults the petitioner, who seems to be the only person actually concerned with upholding the Florida Constitution.

Anonymous said...

He is not gonna wake up and see criminal defendants as human beings. Trust me and those who have dealt with serious cases in front of him.

Anonymous said...

I am sure it has a lot to do with budget but the Dade Clerk web site is the worst. Total rebullshit.

Anonymous said...

Every few months this blog comments on a piece of history only to get no feedback. I think that 95% of this blog's readers do not know any of the players on the '69-70 Knicks and Lakers. And of the remaining 5%, half probably think Bill Bradley was the guy who ran against Al Gore in the 2000 primary or that your reference to Dollar Bill is to Billions. In any event, think about it. The Lakers had Jerry West, Chamberlain, and Elgin Baylor and somehow lost! I strongly recommend that serious sports fans get a copy of The Open Man by Dave Debusschre, a diary of that season. It was all about teamwork. Your Phil Jackson note makes me laugh. He was tall, awkward, and looked like an act of biological malpractice. Like he had a large coat hanger shoved under his neck. He gave hope to every high school misfit in America. "Hey, if that guy can make it, so can I."

the trialmaster said...

Rebull seeks a return to his seat. That means that there are not any law firms knocking on his door to employ him. In the "old" days law firms would fight to hire a judge who was retiring. No more. Judges are a dime a dozen and only very few could do well in private practice.

Rumpole said...

Phil Jackson was injured for a part of the 69-70 Championship season and didn't play in the finals. Over the next few years he grew a large afro and my favourite shot of his was the running hook from around the free throw line coming off a screen.
The Lakers had great players. Maybe, when all is said and done the first player of all time that you would draft to build a team- Wilt- although personally I am a Bill Russell guy.
But while the Lakers had great players, the Knicks were a great TEAM. They had a better coach, played better defense, were selfless and their only goal was to win and that made all the difference. What Reed did in Game 7 is still my all time Game 7 moment for any sport- and that includes Mazeroski's bottom of the 9th inning home run for the Pirates to beat the Yanks, I think in 60, and several other clutch championship moments. Reed motivated his team and it wasn't even close.

Aponte Orders said...


You think I dunno what to do, I m a ginna show ya I can judge- herres a sampal order I wuld rite on a motin for summry jadgement-

This caws having come on to be herd on the Defendant's motion for summry jadgement, and the court beein fuly advised in the matter is it herbY DENIED
1, mEGAN Markle said eveyone should have a chance;
2, Oprah said there is too sides to every storey

The motion is DENIED.

Done and orderd

Rosy Aponte Circat Court Judge

Jay Leno said...

Too funny.

Anonymous said...

Rumpole clearly in "get off my lawn" mode. Sad.

Anonymous said...

Looks like something might happen with that Renatha Francis kerfuffle after all.

https://efactssc-public.flcourts.org/casedocuments/2020/985/2020-985_disposition_150541_d18a.pdf