Schumer Nominates Geraci
Today the news came down that Monroe County Court Judge Frank P. Geraci has been recommended to the President by Seantor Chuck Schumer as the nominee to become a Federal Distict Court Judge here in Rochester. Below are some links to the coverage of this today:
Thise who have been following this story will undoubtedly recall that former District Attorney Mike Green was nominated for this position last year but failed to secure the seat after President Obama declined to resubmit his name for consideration. Channel 10 ran a story today on this angle as it pertained to Judge Geraci now being nominated.
Twitter once again was the place to be today for a great discussion among some of the local media who have been following this story for almost two years now. Rachel Barnhart (@rachbarnhart) and Sean Carroll (@scarroll13) of 13, Berkeley Brean (@whec_bbrean) and Brett Davidsen (@whec_bdavidsen) from 10, and Gary Craig (@gcraig1) from the paper all joined in a very lively discussion centering on what really went wrong with the Green nomination. Gary also explored the angle that some local women’s legal groups were advocating for a female nominee for the position.
If you are not on Twitter you are missing out. For any Rochestarian who likes to stay informed these reporters are “must follows.” Shameless plug here for me – @mrichlaw – as well.
At this point all that I can really add is my congratulations to Judge Geraci. The community should be aware that he is a jurist of the highest caliber and well-deserving of this nomination, and hopefully also the appoitment after a full Senate vote. I have appeared in front of Judge Geraci many, many times and have always found him to be a fair, intelligent and patient man. I’ve also had the pleasure in the last few months to get to know his son Mike, who has passed the New York bar and is awaiting his swearing in later on in February. Here is hoping for a swift confirmation for not only him, but for the sake of Judge Larimer who has been putting his retirement on hold awaiting the arrival of his replacement.
UPDATE (5/11/12): Judge Geraci is moving closer to the federal bench.
Law School: a guarantee?
A story was brought to my attention this week by the lovely and talented Alison J. Rich, Esq., partner at the esteemed firm of Evans & Fox LLP.
It appears that some alumni of the Albany Law School of Union University are suing the school alleging that they were misled about the prospects for lucrative employment following graduation. It further appears that Albany is not the only school facing such a lawsuit. A Bloomberg article from earlier in the week indicated that similar lawsuits have been filed against Brooklyn Law School, DePaul University and others. The American Bar Association also posted an article calling these series of lawsuits a “gathering storm.”
I had conversations back when I was still at the DA’s Office with some of the younger prosecutors who described their student loan debt as overwhelming, almost to the point where they were struggling to meet their obligations on the salary they were making. This stood in stark contrast to lawyers that I started with, of whom I cannot recall one ever saying they were worried about paying back their loans from law school. My point is that at least anecdotally speaking, it would appear that the cost of a law school education has skyrocketed to outrageous levels.
That’s where the lawsuits come in; graduates are claiming that they were lured to a particular law school (and into thousands and thousands of dollars of student loan debt) based on the school’s claim of a high placement rate after graduation and school-provided figures about average salaries. And they are further claiming that post-graduation the job opportunities are not out there as the law school had promised.
The situation certainly bears watching. On the one hand, one could argue that it’s a “buyer beware” scenario, in that it is not the law school’s place to provide employment upon graduation. However, the schools, including the one I attended, did advertise very prominently statistics such as their bar passage rates, employment rates, and average salaries. Undoubtedly this was done to try to convince prospective students to attend that law school instead of another one.
We shall see.
The President and the Goalie
Let me preface this post by first saying this: thank God we live in a country where a person is free, without any fear of persecution or retribution, to decline an invitation from the President of the United States to visit the White House.
Now, with that out of the way, in the news this week you may have seen mention of the fact that the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins were received Monday at the White House by President Obama, as is customary for the champions of all major sports leagues as well as NCAA football and basketball.
But the news wasn’t that the Bruins were there, it was who wasn’t there, as in the MVP of the playoffs last year, goaltender Tim Thomas. On Monday afternoon following the Bruins’ visit, Thomas made the following statement regarding his absence:
“I believe the federal government has grown out of control,’’ he stated, “threatening the rights, liberties, and property of the people.’’
It’s been no secret that Thomas holds certain political views that are shall we say, conservative and/or sympathetic to the Tea Party, which is fine. But his decision to skip the reception has drawn criticism in the media, from Bruins team sources, and even from some players on other teams.
It is also worth noting here that Thomas was a member of the silver-medal winning US Olympic team in 2010, although he had limited playing time behind some guy named Ryan Miller who currently ranks 42nd in NHL goals against average.
Be that as it may, my take on this as an American citizen and a hockey player and fan is this: I don’t care if Mickey Mouse is the President. If the President of the United States invites you and your teammates to the White House to recognize your accomplishment in winning a championship, you go. Period. You may not like the man or agree with his politics, but you respect the office. And you go because in not doing so you diminish the day for your teammates, because as I said at the top, this has become not about the Bruins being at the White House. It’s now about Tim Thomas not being there. That’s unfortunate, and it’s not right.
However, as I said, thank God we live in a country where Tim Thomas can make that choice, even if it was the wrong one.
GPS Tracking Ruling
Interesting piece today from Yahoo! about a decison handed down today by the United States Supreme Court. The ruling, by a 9-0 unanimous decsion, holds that the police will need to obtain a search warrant before secretly installing GPS tracking devices on suspects’ cars.
Some perspective…
I’m sure many out there have heard the story in the last few days about the tragic passing of 29 year old Canadian freeskiier Sarah Burke. I found this video today on Facebook courtesy of my colleague Angelo Rose and I thought it was definitely worth sharing.