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.

Friday, September 25, 2020

YOUR NEXT SUPREME COURT JUSTICE NOMINEE

UPDATE: Friday 6:45 pm both the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal are confirming what the greatest legal blogger in the universe told you this morning: ACB will replace RBG as President idiot Trump's SCOTUS nominee.  

President Trump will announce his next Supreme Court nominee this weekend and it will not be the just retired Judge Jerri Beth Cohen who was feted by her colleagues in a fun Zoom send off Thursday. Cohen came to the bench in a deep 1992 class that included David Young (1.0) and Caryn Schwartz. The zingers were apparently flying on Thursday and we wish Judge Cohen Au Revoir in a well earned retirement. 

The two leading contenders for the RBG spot on the Supreme Court are Miami and Hialeah's own Barbara Lagoa and Judge Amy Cohen Barrett who boasts a Judge Moreno-like Notre Dame resume  and currently serves on the 7th Circuit. 

The strengths of Judge Lagoa is that she would be a stealth nominee with her years on the 3rd DCA containing opinions on mortgage fraud and juvenile dependency issues. Hardly Roe v Wade worthy. 

Judge Cohen Barrett however boosts a deep conservative back ground as a member of a Catholic religious society; she once co-authored a law review article suggesting Catholic judges should recuse themselves from death penalty cases. The phrase you hear about Judge Cohen-Barrett is that she has been groomed for the Supreme Court since her first year in law school. With seven children she appeals to that working mother made good  storyline that the Republicans will trot out in support of her nomination. 

Judge Lagoa would rep the 305 and 786 nicely. But a little birdy whose work number starts with (202) 456-XXX0 whispered in our ear "It's  ACB  to replace RBG" and we are going with that prediction. 

Dark Horse no one is talking about: Pam Bondi. 

Just remember we told you first. 



20 comments:

Anonymous said...

I want to Lagoa for one simple reason. It is the only time we will ever get to see a veteran 3D DCA judge put under oath before the national spotlight and forced to answer the question that every appellate specialist has: why so damn many PCA's when I worked met a__s off on that brief?

Anonymous said...

go Spartans!

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...


Rump. It’s September and you made your third mistake of 2020.

You turned a devout Catholic named Amy CONEY Barrett into a Jewish Justice to be named Amy COHEN Barrett.

All I can say to that is Mazel Tov.

Anonymous said...

What is the Catholic religious society?

Anonymous said...

Lets support the best qualified--Aponte. She is both hispanic and "colored" by her own admission. Although she is unable to speak in a coherent sentence that is of no effect. After all she can just remain silent during oral arguments like Justice Thomas did for 30 years. And no one will know what a fool she is.

Anonymous said...

One can only wish.

Robert Kuntz said...

I have a feeling that this citation is going to come in handy in the next days and weeks:

". . . but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

Constitution of the United States
Article VI, Clause 3

Anonymous said...

@7:13 - The answer is simple: given the typos and grammatical errors in your one paragraph here, I'm sure they couldn't bear to read the rest of your brief, so PCA away said the 3d DCA!

Anonymous said...

I thought that JBC’s retirement Zoom party was this coming Wednesday?

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...


THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

WELCOME PHASE THREE .....

Today, Governor Ron DeSantis issued Executive Order 20-244, moving all of Florida’s 67 counties into Phase 3.

Executive Order 20-244 does the following:


Removes state-level restrictions on businesses, such as restaurants. Provides that no COVID-19 emergency ordinance may prevent an individual from working or operating a business, giving Floridians and business owners needed certainty and the ability to provide for themselves and their families.

Provides that restaurants may not be limited by a COVID-19 emergency order by any local government to less than 50% of their indoor capacity. If a restaurant is limited to less than 100% of its indoor capacity, such COVID-19 emergency order must satisfy the following:

Quantify the economic impact of each limitation or requirements on those restaurants; and
Explain why each limitation or requirement is necessary for public health.

Suspends all outstanding fines and penalties, and the collection of such moving forward, applied against individuals related to COVID-19.

Executive Order 20-244 is effective immediately.

CAP OUT .......

Anonymous said...

I waited 4 hours and 17 minutes to be called in a zoom session with Dom Vio Judge Espinosa yesterday. Not nice.

Anonymous said...

Total rebullshit.

Anonymous said...

Florida in its entirety is a La-goner. Thank you, Gov.

Anonymous said...

So the governor says phase 3. The FSC Chief Justice deferred to the chief judges of the Circuits in the state to decide when to move the courts into further phases. Let's hope the chief judges evaluate what the science states prior to opening the courthouses for full action. Thanks SAO5

Anonymous said...

This doesn’t surprise me. Judge Espinosa is a former defense Lawyer from CSK, who ran against David Miller as OldMan Cole’s puppet. What do you expect?

Anonymous said...

If true, then this would be the first potential justice not from the Ivy League since Stevens.

It's all but understood now that every supreme court justice has to have graduated from Harvard or Yale law school. Ginsburg was the last exception to that, having only attended Harvard Law but then transferring and ultimately graduating from Columbia Law, a lesser Ivy. None of the female front runners on Trump's list went to Harvard or Yale. Lagoa did also graduate from Columbia Law, and I wondered if they thought her graduating from the same lesser Ivy law school as Ginsburg would have been some minor plus in her column. But probably not.

Last non-Ivy league supreme court nominee I can remember was Harriet Miers, who went to podunk Southern Methodist. And after that nomination crashed and burned, Bush had to right the situation by nominating Alito from Yale Law. But it propped up the notion than non-Ivy Leaguers need not apply.

Last Florida judge I remember who nominated to the supreme court was G. Harrold Carswell from the Northern District. He graduated from some place called Walter F. George Law School in Georgia (now Mercer Law School). In addition to the predictable objections about his conservatism and prior public support for Jim Crow, they made hay about his lackluster credentials and lots of his decisions getting reversed on appeal. And so Senator Roman Hruska defended Carswell's nomination with words that became his legacy:

"Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises, Frankfurters and Cardozos."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._Harrold_Carswell

Carswell never did get to represent Florida or mediocre people on the high court. After his bid failed, Nixon nominated Harvard Law Harry Blackmun, who went on to write a certain decision.

Kissimmee Kid said...

@7:13 - The Judge on the panel entrusted with running the case told you at oral argument why your case is a piece of shit not worth the time for an opinion. You get one trial, unless you can point out a legitimate error in the process, not some specious lawyerly bullshit, you ain't gonna get another. You want to know why the court didn't think your bullshit was not worth the time and effort to write an opinion upholding the Circuit Judge? Reread the Appellee's Brief.

Fake Judge Elekt Aponte said...

En the tradicion of the konstituionul calender by judger Herch, I am introducing my own constitutional calendar.

On September 26, 2001, the esteamed Elle Woods made the followign argument in kourt in Legally Blond. She said,

"Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands, they just don’t."

On a persunal note, I was going to use this argument in a PIP case I was going to do a deposition for. But the witness did not speek english and we had to postpone the deposition. It is kurrently rescheuled for December 4th, but if I beat Judge TUnis in the elektion on December 3, I will obveeusly be to busy with being a judger. Joe Clock will have to do the depo for me.

Sincerely,
ROsy "your colored judge" Aponte

Anonymous said...

I was wondering if the leaks about the nomination of Barrett were a deliberate false flag and Trump was going to fake out by nominating somebody else at the last minute. But Barrett is standing next to Trump at the podium now, so that would be a pretty committed ruse.

Anonymous said...

11:52 Not really familiar with the Third DCA are you? Oral arguments are rare these days, so judge in charge of oral argument panel told this lawyer nothing. And I've alot of
really awful appellee briefs which also say nothing. There are legitimate bases for pcas, but these days they are used more and more to cover for unwillingness to work or agenda driven jurisprudence.