While I agee with the Sentiments Expressed Here . . . The Judge was Right about the Problems in the Federal Caseload
Surely One Could Depart the Bench More Gracefully [My Shingle]
This recent post from My Shingle properly criticises Judge Orlofsky for somewhat impolitic remarks about leaving the federal bench, but Judge Orlofsky is right about the problematic state of the federal criminal caseload.
During my seven years as a federal prosecutor and six years since (doing almost exlcusively federal criminal defense work), the focus of prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Offices appears to have shifted to street level drug offenses and felon in possession gun prosecutions which are typically investigated by state and local police department and adopted by federal prosecutors.
Unfortunately, this has caused an increase in the number of federal cases invovling relatively mundane criminal offenses. Where in years past resources were devoted to more large scale or complex criminal matters, i.e., large drug conspriacies or white collar crimes, today the federal court looks more and more like an annex of the state criminal courts. I do not take the Judge's comments as suggesting that the defendant's are unimportant, but rather the nature of the cases being brought to and tried in federal court has changed courtesy of Operation Triggerlock and other questionable federal projects.
8:53:09 AM 
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