Well, it is now Friday afternoon in South Florida, so I thought I would pass along some short thoughts for the weekend.

1.) Sanders v. State, No. 4D10-3865, is, in my opinion, a great example of a criminal defense lawyer thinking outside the box.  After the trial court denied the defense motion to dismiss, on appeal, the 4th District Court of Appeal reversed.  In short, the Court agreed with the defense that the grand theft charges should have been dismissed because the theft was committed while the plane was in flight, before touching down in Florida.  I am sure that this argument would have driven me crazy back when I was a prosecutor, but now, I think it’s pretty clever!

2.) Lately, some high-profile people, such as Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of University of California, Irvine School of Law (and well-known Supreme Court lecturer), have been calling for the Supreme Court to make itself more accessible to the common people.  Some of Dean Chemerinsky’s suggestions include allowing television cameras into the courtroom to broadcast oral arguments, letting the public know in advance which decisions it will be releasing, hiring a “clear writer” to reduce each decision down to a single paragraph that would accompany a ruling, and explaining why certiorari was denied.  In another report on CNN, Joe Mathewson, a former attorney and Supreme Court reporter for the Wall Street Journal, also calls for the installation of cameras in the courtroom in time for the oral arguments scheduled in the case where the Court will decide the constitutionality of President Obama’s new healthcare law.  The case, Dept. of Health & Human Srvcs. v. Florida, No. SC11-398, is set for oral argument on Monday, March 26, 2012.