Is a trial court judge still a trial court judge if there are no trials in the judge's court? No wonder they are called U.S. District Court judges. Judge Jesse Furman, judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, has had one criminal jury trial in four plus years on the bench. The New York Times reports on the continuing disappearance of the jury trial, the right to which is enshrined in the Seventh Amendment to the Constitution, Trial By Jury, A Hallowed American Right, Is Vanishing.
I don't know Judge Furman; his credentials and background are impeccable and impressive. One might wonder whether his skills and talents are being made the most of in calculating adjusted offense levels (is that plus or minus two levels?) and otherwise in the grind of chambers work. For him to decide; his former colleague, Judge Shira Schiendlin, resigned earlier this year, mostly out of boredom it appears from the article.
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