When you see something that is not right, not fair, find a way to get in the way and cause trouble.
Congressman John Lewis
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.
Today November 13 is a great day in American history.
A seemingly minor domestic spat set off a chain of events that resulted in an interpersonal relationship that over a period of several years changed everything.
It just goes to show you that not all domestic arguments should end up in DV court with the 800 week program. Sometimes a simply change of scenery and roommates is all it takes.
Enjoy.
TNF: The streaking Jets, suddenly the hottest team in football going 2-0, play the revamped Cheaters, suddenly the leaders in the AFC East. Jets -13 seems a bit much, but fresh off our disastrous over pick on MNF (was the score 3-0 at halftime?) we are going with the over 43 tonight in the hopes that more action will lead to less drinking, and less of a hangover tomorrow as we head into what is nothing less than a glorious So Fla weekend.
There is chatter that judges want to do away with zoom.
And why wouldn't they?
It helps lawyers.
It helps litigants, many of whom cannot afford to pay for parking.
So why wouldn't those who wear black all the time and don't feel respected unless they sit above everyone else want to end the single most helpful innovation in the law since Westlaw made Shephardizing a case as easy as clocking on a button?
Ah, but as we dive deeper into this pending contretemps, it turns out it is not all of the judiciary. We paint with too broad of a brush. So who could it be?
It's not the DCA judges. They're busy cutting back on oral argument, so any lawyer lucky to get an invitation to appear is going to jump on it.
And it's not the Circuit bench because they need to wrap things up early and polish that DCA / US District Court application.
The feds never really had it. Plus you don't get hearings on most matters. Write a motion, prepare an order denying it, keep track of your CJA hours, and you're all set.
So who could it be that feels undervalued, disrespected, and needs to throw a temper tantrum like North Korea so they won't be ignored?
Why it's the County Court criminal judges who want to do away with Zoom!
Why?
Because they will not be ignored. They are doing really really important stuff and unlike those pushovers in Circuit, they need lawyers and litigants on bended knee, begging for their attention so the important business of imposing a w/h or adj and court costs and time to pay can be resolved with the Solomonic wisdom they all possess and just need everyone else to know about. ("Did you see the way Judge XYZ adjudicated that woman which means she will lose her SNAP assistance? Brillant! Just Brillant.") And if the poorest people in the system miss work and have to pay for parking, which means they cannot shop for food for the next day, then....just work harder, duh!
They can do what they wish. We never go there anyway. But we will tell you this, they drag defendants and lawyers to county court every day for their nonsense and do away with Zoom, we will harp on this every day until our last day blogging (June 30, 2026). And we will give credit to those behind the push to do away with Zoom. Because there is no reason the judges who do away with Zoom should not get all the credit they deserve. Over and over and over.
We run this every year. It's important. Here it is again in 2025, when our veterans are called, privately, as dumb for risking their lives for our country.
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow beneath the crosses row on row That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly; Scarce heard amid the guns below, We are dead. Short days ago, we lived, felt dawn glow; Loved and were loved and now we lie In Flanders Fields. If Ye break faith with us who die, We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders Fields. John McCrae WWI Solider who died on the front in France of pneumonia in 1918. While you're at it click here and read Judge Jon Schlessinger's moving tribute to his Uncle Edward Kielich, who was buried with full honours at Arlington Cemetery.
They’ve seen things we could never imagine.
They’ve done things people were not meant to do.
They risked their lives so we can live in freedom.
They are our veterans and today we honor them.
107 Years on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 the guns of the great war fell silent.
Our Boys, The Doughboys, lie at rest in places with names like Flanders, Bony, and Belleau. They died on battlefields named Marne, Somme, and Verdun. Almost 5 Million Americans were in uniform for World War I, and over 100,000 died, and more than half of those deaths were on the battlefield.
It was the first time American boys would be asked to save Europe. It would not be the last.
Our nation has answered the call time and time again. Mostly for the right reasons, but not always. Yet we’ve always answered the call. And the price has always been high. Our young men and now our young women lie in battlefield graveyards all over the world, never to grow older, never to see the results of their sacrifice. Sacrifice given with the full assurance that their country would never let them down and would never forget. Sacrifice that Abraham Lincoln called "The last full measure of devotion."
Today we remember. And at 11 am, stop for a moment and take two minutes and reflect on the good things in your life. Think of your home, or your children, or your parents, or the freedoms you enjoy, and your comforts and remember none of that would have been possible without them.
Thank you. It doesn't seem enough, but Thank You, each and every one of you.
Good Monday morning REGJB! Court is opened Monday and closed Tuesday (11/11). Good luck with jury selection today.
Come Tuesday morning we will have our first cold snap of the fall, when temps start dropping late this evening. By Tuesday morning it will dip to 49! Sweater weather! We love it. And remember to skip that extra large Starbucks coffee order and donate to a local Miami food bank.
On Sunday night, as blog readers were counting their winnings (we gave you Fins over Cheaters, the Jets blowing the first pick by beating the Browns, and Seattle over Arizona) a group of senate Democrats were agreeing to a temporary funding bill that would re-open the government until January. Air travel would return in time for Thanksgiving (unfortunately that includes MIA which we abhor), and SNAP would be fully funded allowing people to use their recently worthless TRUMP cards (Terror Reigning Under Meal Payment cards). In return, the Democrats did NOT get relief for those paying the exponentially higher premiums when renewing their Obama care.
So let's summarize. To punish the democrats for not agreeing to the government funding bills, the republicans made food and health care unaffordable for many working-class Americans. Seems to us like a good election strategy for the midterms: take away food and health insurance. Sure, that works. The only thing left is to raise taxes on those earning less than $60,000.00 a year to incentivize them into working harder and earning more.
What did you miss most about the government shutdown? Visits from pesky USDA inspectors? The FDA regulating new medicines? Air safety?
Don't forget to thank your favourite federal courtroom deputy from showing up and keeping court running smoothly without being paid. Ditto to the federal PDS.
You can make your donations to help feed Floridians using the money saved skipping your Starbucks drink here:
Guten Morgan, we start our day with the Colts and Falcons in the NFL's first ever game in Berlin. The Colts are -6 favourites and you have to ask was last week an aberration or has the whole season been an aberration? We are going to go with last week being just one of those weeks for Indy against a motivated Steeler D. We like Daniel Jones, who is continuing the tradition of failed NY first round QBs having a second chance somewhere else. And no "sauce on side" for us, as Sauce Gardner joins the Colt's secondary fresh off his early release from the NY Jets. So we are JFK'ing this with an Ich Bin Ein Berliner bet and starting our day off with a heavy dose of beer and schnitzel on Indy -6, [PUSH]with a tiny parlay on Jonathan Taylor over 93.5 yds rushing (a little too high but what the heck, it's Germany) and Penix under 232 passing yards. [WIN 15 got us 50].
The rest of the week, including the big power matchup everyone is talking about, a bit later after we finish our Vietnamese Coffee brew (we are obsessed).
First up is the Bills at Miami. Will the Fins keep it close? Who knows? Who cares? The Miami fans have abandoned this team because that is what they do. Take the points as the Bills have KC hangover and there may be a back door cover. Like for five bucks- no more. The fins stink and could lose 38-10.
Giants at Bears (our survivor pick). Chi -4 seems a bit light. Lay the 4 and get the hotdog 🌠with tomato, onions, relish, mustard and a pickle spear on a seeded bun.We love a good Chicago dog.
Arizona at Seattle. The Cardinals have disappointed us. But it's the offense of both teams we like today. A hawk beats a cardinal every time, even with -6.5, and over 45.5.
Okay, here it is, the matchup you have circled since the schedule was released last year.Browns! Jets! It does not get any better than this in the NFL. This is the battle for the first draft pick in 2026. The Browns will be looking to draft their 234th first round QB since 1990 (or as many cabinet members that resigned in the dear leader's first administration). But if there is one thing a die-hard Jets fan can count on is their team to screw it up. They got off the schneid last week, and in their battle for the first pick of the draft next year, the J E T S Jets Jets Jets screw this up by winning a close one at home. Maybe on OT FG in which the entire stadium will be praying for them to miss it. Who knows, other than it will be entertaining.
This friends, is what football is all about. Jets +2 because they screw things up like John Thune presiding over the longest ever shutdown of the government. No Snap payments? Happy Thanksgiving.🦃 * Wanna fly home? Have you considered Uber?
SURVIVOR
Lucy Lew has Carolina on her mind. Rumpole likes Da Bears, and Dan Tibbett, showing why he is the master defense strategist, has taken his bye, giving him a chance to win the whole shebang without risking losing. It is just amazing how many of you bust out without ever using your bye.
* We are going to start the angry-old-guy-rant now. We DO NOT want your insipid email on November 26 wishing us happy thanksgiving. We do not need it. We do not want it. Nobody cares about you wishing them a happy thanksgiving. They do not sit down to eat turkey and ham and say "Wait! Did we get that happy thanksgiving email from that law firm that started spamming us a few years ago?" Let's be real. The email is just you saying "Hey! Look at me! I'm relevant. I'm sincere. I'm sensitive. I'm thinking of you so please think of me!" And it is none of those things. It is just a silly ego inflating exercise that spams our inbox on a day we do not want to think of law, you, or emails. So be a real mensch, and make a donation to people who are missing Snap payments, and do it the right way- anonymously, and you will have good karma. Email us, and bad times will follow.
Make a donation to people who are hungry in America in 2025 here:
or These Florida Restaurants have stepped up with free meals to people with worthless SNAP/Trump cards.
If you know of a Miami restaurant offering free meals to Snap recipients, please let us know and we will give them tons of free JB Blog publicity.
Nvidia is worth 4 trillion; Apple 3T, Microsoft 2+T, and we have hunger in this country. We have people dying without medical care. It just does not make sense to us. It is a shame that a child wakes up hungry after going to bed hungry and we are all spending `11 dollars on some stupid coffee drink. Make your own coffee today and donate ten bucks. Ten freaking dollars! If everyone in the REGJB did that, we could feed thousands of Miamians who need some assistance. If you do not like government taxes to help the disadvantaged, and we do have some philosophical differences with altruism as a forced government philosophy, step up and do it yourself. Pay it forward. Make a difference and you just might feel better about yourself come new year's resolutions time- when all some of you can think about is being tougher on defendants, or charging more for that no action you had nothing to do with. (And they say we are never tough on crim def attys. Sheesh. Read the damn blog will ya?And stop yapping about crap you know nothing about.)
The Republicans are going after federal judges who had the temerity to criticize the nine members of the highest court in the land. Impeachments may follow.
Why did this catch our attention? Because of the renewed grumbling at 1350 NW 12th avenue about your humble blogger.
"Something should be done"; "file a bar complaint"; "have you read what he wrote in the comments about our office?"
The third comment irks us the most. WE DO NOT WRITE THE COMMENTS, GENIUS. Others do. You might want to thank us for letting you know how lowly your office is viewed.
Back to the federal judges, who we now, uncharacteristically find ourselves sympathizing with. Fear not, denizens of courtrooms with ultra-high ceilings, we feel your pain. And we (you members of the judiciary and us- your blogger) are in good company. Forty-six different aliases were used by commentators /authors of the federalist papers. And if Publius was good enough for Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, then Rumpole suits us just fine. There is a long tradition of using pen-names to spark discussions about issues, The practice pre-dates the republic. So to you ASAs grumbling about us: as James Madison would say: stuff it!
And if you would like to learn more about the Supreme Court's shadow docket, then our own modern-day Federalist Judge Milton Hirsch will be giving a CLE zoom lecture about this very topic. His latest constitutional calendar on Milton's Paradise Lost...Guy de Maupassant... Ernie Banks...Mark Twain...Ulysses Grant, had this missive about an upcoming CLE.
On an unrelated note: Although the Supreme Court normally rises on or before the July 4 holiday and doesn't reconvene till the first Monday in October, this past summer saw a torrent of path-breaking opinions (and "shadow docket" orders without opinions). I'm doing a one-hour Zoom CLE on those cases at lunchtime next Thursday, Nov. 13. If you need an hour of CLE, you can get it painlessly from the safety, comfort, and convenience of your own chair and computer. Here's the link: https://mbba.wildapricot.org/event-6409682
So there you have it. A defense of pseudonyms.
A Pennsylvania Farmer
(the pseudonym of federalist John Dickinson - one of our favourite Founding Father).
Wednesday the Supreme Court ("Textualism, textualism, textualism!!!) takes up the challenge to the Dear Leader's willy-nilly imposition on tariffs without congressional approval. "Barbados thinks it can win a trade war with us? Think again tough guy."
The Dear Leader's justification for his careful and well thought out imposition of tariffs? A Jimmy Carter era law: International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”).
The question is simple? Has Congress given the president the authority to impose broad import duties (i.e., tariffs) by invoking an emergency-powers statute that was originally aimed at foreign threats?
The answer is simple to the six conservative justices on the Supreme Court: Of course the President is right. The law gives him the powers do impose tariffs when he wants, for how much he wants. If it's Wednesday, the tariffs on China must be 30%. If it's Friday, the rate is 11%.
And of course, the legal reasoning that the majority will use is textualism. Just rule based on what the law says. People will die- sorry, Textualism does not allow us to intervene. The planet will be destroyed- sorry, Textualism does not allow us to intervene.
Textualism rules the day. So all the majority needs to do is read the IEEPA (which sounds like a bad local pub brew in Cleveland) and simply point out that the law gives the President the right to impose tariffs in an emergency. Should take about three pages- The Dear Leader wins because he always wins (except when prosecuted in NY State Court).
One eeny, weeny, teeny tiny small problem. IEEPA never mentions imposing tariffs or duties, nor creating taxes. Under past precedent, tariffs are legislative‐taxing measures belonging to Congress.
The United States Court of Appeals for the DC Federal Circuit ruled 7-4 via Textualism reasoning, that the Dear Leader exceeded his authority under IEEPA by imposing sweeping tariffs. The majority held that the statute did not clearly authorize tariffs and in fact did not have the word tariffs in the statute.
So now, that truckload of valium in DC being delivered to the Supreme Court will be used by six judges whose two loves in life: their sole desire to please the Dear Leader, and the use of Textualism to accomplish all their personal goals, are in conflict.
What to do? Oh what to do? Will their love of unencumbered presidential power - when they like the president- carry the day? Or will they demonstrate the kind of intellectual honesty that their love affair with textualism requires? They love giving speeches about how textualism often requires them to rule in ways that they personally would not do. (If it hasn't happened in the past, in the future the audience should cough **bs**bs** bullshit** bullshit**).
Call us pessimistic, but we predict the kind of legal yoga that will allow these sycophants to support their Dear Leader.
Something like, "Textualism can be carried a bit too far. It is perfectly reasonable to apply the legal principle to deny starving children food, dying people medicine and medical insurance, but it must yield when a Republican President that we like declares an emergency. Plus, the president says he sees the word tariffs in the statute, and as we have often ruled recently, if the president says it, then it must be true. "
So let's see how intellectually honest these six bootlickers really are.
