A Flake by Any Other Name is Still a Flake - Granite Grok

A Flake by Any Other Name is Still a Flake

The US District Court for the Southern District of Florida is one of the busier federal trial courts in the country, and it is not unusual for civil cases filed in that Court to take over a year to come to trial because of the limited judicial resources and the necessity of giving priority to criminal cases under the Speedy Trial Rule so that criminal defendants get simply to walk away from their charges because of trial delays.

I am a long time member of the Bar of that Court and have handled some cases in that Court, which seems to be always chronically undermanned (or under-woman-ed as the case may be).

There is a disgraceful situation with respect to an appointment of a Judge to that Court that has been going on too long, and it is fairly unusual because I happen to know well a person nominated to that Court by the President, as recommended by the 2 US Senators from Florida (one Republican and one Democrat), but stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee for many months, preventing his nomination from going to the floor of the full Senate, at which he will most likely be confirmed.

Florida State Circuit Judge Rodney Smith grew up in the poorest section of Miami.  Fortunately, with the support of family and friends and his membership in the Boy Scouts, he became a true American Success Story.

After becoming an Eagle Scout, Rod received a B.S. degree, cum laude, from Florida A&M University, a predominately black state school, and a J.D. degree, also cum laude, from Michigan State University.  After graduation from law school and admission to the Bar, he served as a prosecutor, a municipal lawyer, and in various aspects of private practice before becoming a state court Judge in 2008.

Rod has received numerous awards from various and sundry organizations, which are set out in detail in the questionnaire he submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is available on line.  They are far too numerous to mention here.

He is a fellow member of The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.  He and I served together on the Executive Board of the South Florida Council of the Boy Scouts for several years before he became a judge, and I was proud to have formally and strongly recommended his first appointment to the state judiciary.

I have no idea of Rod’s politics, political affiliation, or political beliefs, other than what I assume from his membership in The Federalist Society.  I simply know him as a very smart, thoughtful and fair person, who would do our country proud as a member of the Federal Judiciary.

Unfortunately, although his nomination was submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee in early May, it, along with many other federal judicial appointments by the President, have stalled in Committee and they have not been sent to the floor of the full Senate for confirmation, the most recent reason being the insistence of Committee Member outgoing Senator Jeff Flake that he will block sending any of the pending nominations to the Senate floor unless Congress adopts a highly-questionable (on the Constitutional ground of the separation of powers) that would seek to prohibit the President, as head of the Executive Branch, from discharging the Special Counsel, who is, himself, a part of the Executive Branch which reports to the President.

The only good news in this fiasco is that Flake will be out of office shortly and it is reasonable to expect that the stalled nominations held hostage in Committee by the Flake will finally appear on the Senate floor for a full vote early next year.

We can only hope.

>