Did you know today is the fifteenth anniversary of the Senate's confirmation of Judge Barkett to the 11th Circuit? And she received her commission the next day.

Her confirmation took more than six months, thanks to Senator Hatch and her perceived hostility to the death penalty. (She wussed out and only voted to uphold the death penalty more than 200 times as the first female Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court).

She was confirmed 61-37 anyway, and the only Democrat to vote against her was Senator Byrd, that old coot.

Everyone else should send best wishes.

Well, not quite (it's kinda my version of the "CASTRO ALMOST DEAD" teasers the Herald has been feeding readers every couple of months for the last decade or so).

Still, as David says, let's hope the feds dismiss the rest of the case.

Nice opinion by Judge Barkett, which concludes that Judge Cooke's opinion below was "eminently correct."

Indeed.