Federal Court
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President Joe Biden has named 40 Black women to become federal judges, shattering records and creating a new legacy on the bench.
In the final days of his administration, President Joe Biden is following through on one of his campaign promises to make the federal judiciary more diverse, appointing 40 Black women to the bench. That mark was reached when the United States Senate confirmed Tiffany Johnson on Monday (Dec. 9), to replace U.S. District Judge Steve Jones in the Northern District of Georgia.
The appointment means that Biden has named more Black women to the federal judiciary in history, more than the 26 confirmed during the two terms of President Obama. This also includes his nomination of Ketanji Brown-Jackson, the first-ever Black woman named to the Supreme Court. During President Donald Trump’s administration, there were only two Black women who were among the 234 judicial appointees confirmed, making it seven Black people overall. The numbers are highly significant as Trump is making his return to the White House in January, determined to dismantle government agencies such as the Department of Education and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Having Black women judges means that “there is a different kind of voice that can come from the Black female from the bench,” said John Jay College of Criminal Justice Professor-emeritus Delores Jones-Brown.
Having this many Black judges on the federal level is also highly important due to their “cultural presence” in places such as the South. “There are still courts in the Southern states that still don’t look like … the people they serve because Republican senators have blocked all kinds of diverse nominees, or any nominee from the Democratic president,” said Alliance For Justice Vice President of Communications Carolyn Leary Bobb. The confirmation of Johnson makes her the fifth federal judge in the state of Georgia.
Among the 40 Black women federal judges, there is also the first openly LGBTQ judge, Melissa R. DuBose, who will serve the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, and Cristal C. Brisco who will be the first Black judge to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana. “Those very district court judges are usually the first ones to hear cases, and they hear many, many, many more than our circuit courts,” said legal scholar Lena Zwarensteyn, who noted that even their dissenting opinions carry so much weight.
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Testimony in the trial of two men alleged to have murdered Jam Master Jay was punctuated by a former drug dealer confirming that the icon sold cocaine.
On Monday (Feb. 5), a jury in Brooklyn Federal Court heard tense and emotional testimony from three witnesses in the trial of Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington, accused of murdering Hip-Hop icon Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC. The first of those witnesses, Ralph Mullgrav, was a friend of the DJ and a former Baltimore drug dealer who confirmed that Jam Master Jay did sell cocaine. “Jay wasn’t a drug dealer. I’m a drug dealer.” Mullgrav said on the stand.
Mullgrav testified that the DJ approached him to sell cocaine that he had obtained – “maybe 1 or 2 kilos, here or there.” He also stated that Jam Master Jay “just used it to make ends meet.” Mullgrav’s testimony comes after he spent seven days in jail after being arrested on a material witness warrant, which is used to coerce uncooperative witnesses to testify. Mullgrav also stated that Mizell had approached him in August 2002 about having him sell 10 to 20 kilograms of cocaine in Baltimore. Mizell wanted to include Washington, but Mullgrav declined.
“I told him no,” Mullgrav said, citing a history of bad blood with Washington. “Yes, he [Washington] was a problem.” The deal was scuttled when Washington (also known as Tigard) showed up to a meeting instead of Mizell. “I went to the tire to get my gun,” he said, detailing how he stashed a weapon in the tire of a parked car. When the prosecutor asked what his next move was, he replied, “Shoot Tinard.” The prosecution has maintained that a core reason that Jordan and Washington allegedly murdered Jam Master Jay, also known as Jason Mizell, in a Jamaica, Queens, recording studio on October 30, 2002, was due to Mizell cutting Washington out of that deal.
The revelation opened up a full day of testimony wrought with emotion as Lydia High, Jam Master Jay’s former business manager, took the stand afterward. High did state that Jordan and Washington were in the studio, struggling to recount the details but confirming “Jason smiled, he smiled. He kind of gave the person a pound and that’s when he said ‘Oh (expletive)!’ I heard the gun. I screamed and jumped up and I ran, I ran for the door.” Derrick Parker, the “Hip-Hop Cop”, also testified to close out the day.
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Former President Donald Trump was hit with a limited gag order by Judge Tanya Chutkan after making incendiary false remarks about Special Counsel Jack Smith and his family.
On Monday (October 16), U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a limited gag order on the former president after a lengthy hearing. The decree prevents Trump from publicly attacking Special Counsel Jack Smith and his family, court staff, and potential witnesses in the upcoming trial concerning his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Trump has argued that a gag order would impact his rights to free speech, and that was echoed in arguments by his lawyer, John F. Lauro. Judge Chutkan slapped down those claims, saying that Trump’s right to free speech does not allow him “to launch a pretrial smear campaign” against people. “No other defendant would be allowed to do so,” she added, “and I’m not going to allow it in this case.”
The limited gag order is the second that was handed to Trump in the last two weeks, with the first being ordered by Judge Arthur F. Engoron in his civil trial in Manhattan. Judge Engoron made the order after Trump posted a photo to his Truth Social account falsely claiming that Engoron’s law clerk was dating Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer. “Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I won’t tolerate it,” he stated to Trump’s attorneys.
It is notable that the gag order has limitations that exclude President Joe Biden as well as Judge Chutkan from being targeted by Trump in his comments. She had been threatened in the past, resulting in the arrest of a Texas woman. “It’s possible to craft a narrowly tailored order to serve those interests,” Judge Chutkan stated during the hearing. The limitations also seem to allow Trump to make comments about former Vice President Mike Pence as long as the remarks didn’t focus on Pence’s role in the criminal case.
Trump’s response came while he was at a campaign stop in Iowa. “They put a gag order on me, and I’m not supposed to be talking about things that bad people do, and so we’ll be appealing very quickly,” Trump said before adding, “I’ll be the only politician in history where I won’t be allowed to criticize people.”
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Over two decades after the murder of Run-D.M.C.’s Jam Master Jay, a third man has been charged for his role in the crime that shook up the Hip-Hop world.
On Tuesday (May 30), federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced charges against Jay Bryant of Queens, New York for the 2002 murder. Bryant is currently being detained on an unrelated separate indictment related to drugs. According to the court documents in the unsealed indictment, the charges include murder while engaged in narcotics trafficking.
When contacted for comment, Bryant’s lawyer César de Castro said that his client would plead not guilty to the new charges. “Securing an indictment in a secret grand jury, applying an extremely low burden of proof, is one thing,” Castro stated. “Proving it at trial is another matter.” Bryant’s arraignment for the new indictment has not been scheduled.
Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan Jr. are the two other men who’ve been charged with the death of Jam Master Jay, also known as Jason Mizell. Both had murder charges brought against them by prosecutors in August 2020, with authorities blaming the October 2002 shooting in the Hip-Hop icon’s studio on his apparent exclusion of the two from “a multi-kilogram, multistate narcotics transaction” after a dispute in July of that year. Both men are now expected to go to trial in January 2024.
Bryant was spotted entering the building after the shooting according to the indictment, and his DNA was also found at the scene of the crime. The documents go on to detail how the 49-year-old confessed to being there later on and claimed that he was the one who shot Jam Master Jay, a claim that prosecutors feel is false as they believe Jordan is the one who fired the two fatal shots.
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