For many years, across presidents and political parties, the Office of the Pardon Attorney has been criticized for offering too little mercy. Presidential pardons (forgiving crimes, as if they did not happen) and commutation (forgiving sentences, while leaving convictions in place) happened almost as frequently for holiday turkeys as for human beings. From federal judges.

Happy New Year, everyone, and congratulations on surviving another twelve-month in this brutal, beautiful world. As always, I’m hopeful that 2014 is an even better year than the last – though all in all, 2013 was a pretty good year for the Law Office. I was privileged last spring to be accepted to the Eastern.

With the Federal Government shut down, U.S. courts had resources to continue until October 15 using “fee income and no-year appropriated funds.” The Supreme Court has now announced that it will continue operations until October 18 (Friday), and then let us know whether it will still be working next week. All U.S. Courts will remain.

As much as I look forward to February for baseball’s Spring Training, and the first drop of a pre-season puck in September, it is the first Monday in October – the start of a new Supreme Court term – that is my professional New Year’s Day. The Supreme Court reconvenes today with oral arguments in.

Once upon a time, the BOP published the capacities of its prisons in the (once annual) “State of the Bureau.”  But the last time that happened was in 2000, with “State of the Bureau:  1999.” Last week, I received an updated capacities list that is current as of August 27, 2013, and includes newish facilities.