After a tough record in 2015, the Eleventh Circuit batted .400 last term at the U.S. Supreme Court. In the Court’s five merits decisions on appeal from the Eleventh Circuit, two judgments were affirmed, two were reversed, and one was vacated. The two affirmances were both in criminal cases with majority opinions by Justice Thomas….
Category: Court News
Judge Frank M. Hull Taking Senior Status
The media are reporting that Judge Hull has informed President Trump that she intends to take senior status. She has been on the Eleventh Circuit for almost twenty years, after being elevated from the Northern District of Georgia by President Bill Clinton in 1997. This vacancy will give President Trump his second opportunity to appoint a…
Kevin Newsom Confirmed as Eleventh Circuit’s Newest Judge
The Senate has confirmed Kevin Newsom as the Eleventh Circuit’s newest judge. Newsom, 44, is currently the chair of Bradley Arent Boult Cummings’s appellate group. He graduated summa cum laude from Samford University and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, and clerked for Judge O’Scannlain on the Ninth Circuit and for Justice Souter. He…
Eleventh Circuit Mourns Loss of Judge Phyllis Kravitch
The American legal community lost one of its pioneers yesterday, when the Honorable Phyllis Kravitch died after 38 years as a U.S. circuit judge. Judge Kravitch was born in 1920 in Savannah, Georgia, and she received an LL.B. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1943. She returned to practice law in Savannah, where…
Former Law Clerk Seeks New Opportunity
The Eleventh Circuit has an indirect connection with the current presidential race: Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine served as a law clerk to Senior Judge Lanier Anderson in 1983-84 in Macon.
Supreme Court Scorecard
The Eleventh Circuit posted a 0‑3 record in the Supreme Court during the recently concluded 2015 Term, according to the Circuit Scorecard in SCOTUSblog.com’s “Stat Pack.” Achieving a winning record in the Court is no mean feat; 67% of all cases were reversed during the 2015 Term, which falls within the usual reversal-rate range. Only…