Judge removed for criticizing government, even as the appeals court agrees that the goverment is guilty


The judge for the case between the various American Indian tribes and the Department of the interior has been removed by an appellate court.
Let's see if anyone else is confused by this one.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday removed a judge in Washington from a long-running, contentious legal battle between American Indians and the Interior Department, concluding that the judge was prejudiced against the government. At the same time, the court blasted Interior officials for their "deplorable record" in managing trust money for Indians.

In its 3-0 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit noted that it had reversed U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth eight times in the case and that this record, combined with harsh language Lamberth had used to describe the Interior Department and its officials, warranted the "extraordinary" step of removing him from the case.

The action came in the case of the Indian Trust Fund, which was established more than a century ago to hold and distribute fees from oil, grazing, drilling and logging leases on 11 million acres of land west of the Mississippi River.

Government reports show that the trust fund has been plagued with problems since at least 1915. The fund is believed to generate about $500 million a year on behalf of about 500,000 individuals, though lost or mismanaged records have made a complete accounting difficult. Lawyers for the American Indians said government mismanagement had cost their clients billions of dollars.

Got that? The judge is prejudiced against the government but the appeals court blasted the Interior Department for massive mismanagement over more than a century.

Stars above and Earth below, I couldn't have written a better punchline if I had tried.

Judge Lambert is right. And if you really want to get sick, look at the evidence supporting the rulings. Then, if anything, you will see that Judge Lambert was too lenient on the government.

The Indian Trust Fund is one the classic cases of how a paternal government makes things worse, despite the best intentions.

Oh, and by the way, I am a little biased myself. I may not be Navajo, but I was born on the reservation, and I've spent much of my life living close.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Wed - July 12, 2006 at 02:44 PM  Tag


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