Conditions in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina are worsening, with the city falling into a state of desperation, chaos, and anarchy. Article III Groupie is keeping the residents of the Gulf Coast region in her thoughts and prayers, and she has donated to the relief effort (although her contribution falls short of Professor Orin Kerr's generosity). You can make a donation via the Red Cross website.
Updates on how the federal courts in the region have been dealing with Katrina's aftermath are available in the interesting comments to this prior post, as well as in these news articles (via How Appealing). This article, by John Council of the Texas Lawyer, offers the following report:
As Hurricane Katrina and growing floodwaters have turned the New Orleans business district into a legal ghost town, officials at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are making plans to relocate the court.
Several breaks in the levees that surround the city have caused water to rise around the marble walls of the John Minor Wisdom Courthouse, which houses the 5th Circuit. The city's electricity is expected to be out for a month or more...
While Houston, where [Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen] King's chambers are based, may be a logical choice, it still will be a difficult decision. King believes the temporary location of the court will be selected by Friday...
Of the court's 15 judges, only three of them live in New Orleans -- Jacques Wiener, James Dennis and Edith Brown Clement. King says all of the judges who live in the city have relocated and are safe...
For now, King says her office in Houston is serving as the court's unofficial clerk's office, handling emergency matters, such as death penalty stays....
The water will have to rise pretty high before it hits the first-floor clerk's office, [former Fifth Circuit law clerk David] Schenck says. The front steps to the courthouse entrance are a good 20-foot climb, he notes....
Federal court computer systems have also been affected by the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina. Per Howard Bashman, as of yesterday afternoon the website of the Eastern District of Louisiana stated as follows:
The offices of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana are closed until further notice. By order of Chief Judge Helen G. Berrigan, all deadlines and delays in matters pending before this court are suspended until ordered otherwise.
The E.D. La. website was completely down earlier this afternoon, but it now appears to be up and running. Those of you who have tried to access the Fifth Circuit website have probably noticed that traffic is being redicted to the website of the Southern District of Texas.
As one UTR reader brought to A3G's attention, the website of the Eastern District of Texas has also been affected. That site currently has the following notice:
Our main internet server which is located in New Orleans, LA is down. As soon as power is restored, the main server will be brought on-line. You are connected to our COOP internet server which contains important messages such as filing extensions, court relocation notices etc. in the case of an emergency or crises. The court does not anticipate any delays in the court schedule.
The Eastern District of Texas is bordered by Louisiana to the east. (For a map of the Eastern District, which has six different divisions, click here.)
Once again, if you have any further updates, please email A3G or add a comment to this post. Thanks.
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