Newsbriefs:
Federal
Judges
in
San
Diego
Swamped
by
Drug
War,
Immigrant
Arrests
11/10/00
Just weeks after state prosecutors in Texas border counties began refusing to prosecute drug cases developed by federal agents (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/153.html#texasdasagain), another sign that that the border drug war is creating gridlock in the criminal justice system has appeared at the opposite end of the border. US District Court judges in San Diego declared a "judicial emergency" last week after Congress refused to appropriate funds for more judges. The US Judicial Conference, which represents federal courts nationwide, had recommended that eight new federal judgeships be created for the San Diego district. According to Chief Judge Marilyn Huff, the court's caseload has doubled in the past five years as a result of a massive law enforcement buildup on the border. She told the Los Angeles Times some 1,400 new FBI, DEA, Border Patrol, and Customs Service positions had been filled in the district in that period. The district court had been barely held together by bailing wire and chewing gum. Huff told the Times the court had been relying on retired judges, but two died in the last year, a third was hurt in a car accident, and a fourth, 86, was no longer able to serve. "We are in bad shape, with no light at the end of the tunnel," she told the Times. Under the "judicial emergency," the court will curtail some procedures, such as oral arguments in civil cases and presentence investigations in criminal cases. The San Diego US Attorney's Office told the times it has already begun sending some cases to San Diego and Imperial County prosecutors to be tried in state courts. It is precisely that tactic that resulted in the Texas border DAs' rebellion as the costs of prosecuting federal cases and jailing those convicted ate into local budgets. Mario Conte of the Federal Defenders service, which represents indigent defendants, blamed a criminal justice that is out of whack. "It's very simple," he told the Times, "Congress loves to add prosecutors and [law enforcement] agents, but neglects to add judges, defense attorneys, and marshals, and then they wonder why there is a problem."
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