REED'S RATING
As The New York Law Journal sorted through this year’s judicial candidates rated “qualified” by the new screening panels set up in the wake of the Feerick Commission to promote public confidence in judicial elections, it made an odd discovery: Robert R. Reed, the Democratic Party’s candidate for a countywide Civil Court seat in Manhattan, wasn’t on the list. (The names of candidates found “not qualified” are not released, ostensibly for their own protection.) The omission has set off accusations by Reed’s camp that the screening panels’ supposedly good intentions aren’t working. Arthur Greig, counsel to the Manhattan Democratic Party, called the failure to rate Mr. Reed qualified “a political hit on New York County's nominee.” And as reported by the Law Journal, Assemblyman Herman D. Farrell, chairman of the Manhattan Democratic Party, compared the committee's interview process to the way black voters were grilled “in the 1930s” by election officials in the deep South about literacy and other voter-qualification requirements. (Reed is African American.) Click here to read Judicial Reports's exclusive coverage of the screening panels.

DOWN, BOY! 
Southern District Judge Victor Marrero made headlines yesterday when he ruled unconstitutional a portion of the recently revised USA Patriot Act. The invalidated section allowed the F.B.I, through so-called “national security letters,” to secretly force communication companies like Internet providers to hand over records without a court order, and without telling the customer. Between 2003 and 2005, the F.B.I made 143,000 such requests, but even according to the Justice Department, which issued a report on the procedure, the letters had often been handled improperly and even illegally. As reported by The New York Times, Marrero said he feared that the law could initiate a series of intrusions into the judiciary’s role that would be “the legislative equivalent of breaking and entering, with an ominous free pass to the hijacking of constitutional values.”

HOW MUCH ARE YOU WORTH
The Huffington Post has a piece worth reading about the historical antecedents to the current 9/11 family lawsuits about to go to trial in Manhattan Federal District Court. The story probes the philosophical heartbeat of the suits: exactly how much is a thwarted life worth? And how can courts make an accurate determination? At issue are the Victim Compensation Funds set up by Congress and managed by attorney Kenneth Feinberg, which according to the Post used an outdated standard of economic value to determine payouts, not only by estimating the victim's future earnings but also estimating the market price of lost services. “Although Feinberg then augmented awards based on further information about survivors' personal hardship and relationship to the victim, survivors of victims with low or no earning potential received significantly less compensation than high earners,” reads the Post story.

PARKING IN THE PARK 
The Daily News runs a piece about how the continued use of Brooklyn’s Columbus Park as a car park for judges has irked locals. In 1999, court officials promised Brooklyn residents that the new Jay Street courthouse would have a large garage that would eliminate the need for 50 judges to park their cars in the nearby park. But alas, the garage was too small, and despite a News investigation last year that got court officials to promise again to move the parked — pun intended — cars, it hasn’t yet happened.

AGE SUIT TOSSED 
Finally, the Law Journal reports that Southern District Judge Harold Baer, Jr., has thrown out the equal protection claim filed against the Office of Court Administration by a judge who was denied the age-based certification he needed to stay on the bench past 70. When former Supreme Court Justice Frank V. Ponterio reached the mandatory retirement age, he was granted an additional two-year term under the certification process, but was rejected two years later. Ponterio claimed he was denied recertification because he’d threatened to go public with accusations against a fellow judge.