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 Here's the release: Judge Embry J. Kidd: Nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Judge Embry J. Kidd has been a United States Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida since 2019. Judge Kidd previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida from 2014 to 2019. From 2009 to 2014, Judge Kidd worked as an associate at Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, D.C. Judge Kidd served as a law clerk for Judge Roger L. Gregory on the U.S. Court of Appeals for th ..read more

By John R. Byrne Last July, Florida passed a law restricting certain "foreign principals" from six countries of concern (including Venezuela and Cuba) from owning property in the state. The most significant restrictions are directed at those domiciled in China who don't hold either US Citizenship or permanent residency. Sponsors of the law assert that Chinese nationals have been buying up property in the United States, posing risks to national security, including concerns about spying. Now plaintiffs are filing lawsuits in federal court challenging the law on the basis that it discriminates on ..read more

 Wow, how strange.  They aren't refusing to hire students who disrupted class or who signed the silly letter saying to cancel class.  They are refusing to hire all students from Columbia.  This takes the question in the prior post to a whole new level! NEW: 13 federal judges say they will no longer hire clerks from Columbia Law School OR Columbia College after the university allowed an encampment on its lawn to spiral into a destructive occupation of a campus building. This is the first clerkship boycott to hit undergrads.? pic.twitter.com/Ex3GlqBUtK — Aaron Sibarium (@aa ..read more

 Here's their statement saying they are too shaken up after the events this week to sit for exams. They are rightfully getting crushed online for the ask.  Would you hire them?  ..read more

I am very excited to share this bonus episode with you -- an interview with my law school classmate, Judge Kevin Newsom. I think you'll really enjoy hearing from Judge Newsom, who is both whip-smart and completely engaging. You'll recall we've had other 11th Circuit judges on the show before, including Chief Judge Pryor, Judge Rosenbaum, and Judge Abudu, as well as District Court Judges Charles Breyer, Jed Rakoff, and former Judge John Gleeson. I went into these interviews of our federal appellate judges thinking they might be hard to approach and difficult to connect with. But Judge Newso ..read more

 That's not a judge or Justice in one of the Trump cases.  It's how Judge Rosenbaum started her opinion in U.S. v. Victor Hill, but I suspect she was thinking about the immunity case before SCOTUS last week. In any event, the rest of the intro: That principle applies equally to sheriffs (and other officers of the law) and detainees. And 18 U.S.C. § 242 vindicates that principle. It imposes criminal liability on anyone who, under color of law, willfully deprives another person of their constitutional rights. Under § 242, a jury convicted Victor Hill, the former Sheriff of Clayton Coun ..read more

Pundits are already predicting how the Trump jury will decide his case. On MSNBC, commentators are saying that it’s hard to imagine anything but a guilty verdict based on how they see the case. On Fox, viewers are told that it’s going to be tough for Trump to walk because New York is so heavily weighted Dem. So how will folks react if Donald Trump is found not guilty? It got me thinking about the biggest "surprise" verdicts in American history.        Who else you got ..read more

By John R. Byrne Nice article by Jay Weaver in the Herald yesterday about Darryl Richardson, a man who turned his life around after being sentenced to 30 years in prison by Judge Seitz back in 2006. Richardson, whose sentence was shortened to 17 years, was released in 2021 and took advantage of the district's CARE court program. CARE stands for “Court-Assisted Re-Entry court.” The program, created by Judge Seitz and currently being overseen by Judge Williams and Judge Reid, has been operating since 2016. It helps participants, who are on supervised release, re-enter the com ..read more

If you were giving the opening statement for the prosecution, what would your first line be? And if you were representing Donald Trump, what would it be? I imagine that the prosecution will start with something like -- No one is above the law.  Even former Presidents.  Donald Trump illegally interfered with the election by doing X, Y, and Z.  And the defense will start with something like -- Prosecutions should not be political and that's all this is; President Donald Trump is innocent.  He did not interfere with the election.  He was shaken down by a stripper and he p ..read more