Posted on 12/10/2004 4:43:22 PM PST by SmithL
WASHINGTON -- In a victory for the government in a long-running dispute with American Indians, a federal appeals court threw out on Friday most of a judge's plan for making the Interior Department account for billions of dollars the Indians say they are owed.
The appeals court told the judge he could no longer "micromanage" how the system gets fixed.
The ruling means Interior can propose its own plan rather than create a recipe based on ingredients preordered from the bench. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth then would assess the result.
"Yet the court may not micromanage court-ordered reform efforts ... and then subject defendants to findings of contempt for failure to implement such reforms," Judge Stephen Williams wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I love it when an Activist Judge gets slapped down.
ping
Looks like the Indians will get screwed again.
Don't be so sure. Check out the record of U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth. You might be pleasantly surprised.
>>>Looks like the Indians will get screwed again.
Probably not, They will get a Executive branch settelment that meets the requirements of the decree, rather than years of management by an activist Judge.
The judge was bitch-slapped, not the indians.
I'm hoping that Judge Lamberth will finally allow the Bureau of Indian Affairs to reinstate their websites.. they have been shut down now for 3 years by his order and you cannot get ANY information about the BIA. And for us Native Americans, that really sucks..
BIA's websites still down? wow....and I thought it was irritating that some of the BLM wildfire related sites were temporarily down....and not nearly as long, either...
The plan which was partially thrown out was a direct result of Interior's complete bungling and contempt and could easily been avoided had Interior produced documents and pleadings when they were ordered to.
If I were up on Federal charges....and I was guilty, I certainty wouldn't want Lamberth presiding. He held Clinton Administration officials in contempt of court on at least two occasions I can recall.
He's a great judge....relatively speaking.
Lambeth s a good guy.
What do you mean excellent? The BIA lost BILLIONS of dollars that was held in "trust" for indians - it was the Indians' money, not the feds, not taxpayers - it was the Indians' money, and they lost it, stole it, or otherwise misappropriated it.
If you think that is "EXCELLENT", then you belong on a Liberal Board, not a conservative one.
Every time this ACTIVIST JUDGE opened his mouth, he cost the taxPAYERS money. He was trying to run the executive branch from his bench, and he got slapped down. And again, I say, EXCELLENT!
Moving on, I'll agree with you that the BIA has screwed up, royally, and they are the ones that need to fix their problem.
Ok, I can agree with that - if this judge is as bad as you say...
Judge Lamberth is one of the good guys.
Federal Judge Royce Lamberth is best known for the ease with which he approved dozens of discovery motions that allowed fellow conservative Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch to dig into the public and private life of President Bill Clinton. But Lamberth was considerably more strict last March, when he raised procedural concerns about a requested FBI wiretap involving a member of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Lamberth's doubts sparked an internal investigation at the Bush Justice Department into the FBI's monitoring of several terrorist organizations, including Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. That inquiry, officials told The New York Times, "might have hampered electronic surveillance of terror groups." http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_10_33/ai_79515182
It's his attacks on Interior that really seem off-the-wall, more like a petty dictator than a judge. On the other hand, he seems non-partisan, just anti-Interior.
This is one of the decent judges. He held Bruce Babbitt for contempt for lying over the mishandling (lost millions of dollars) of trust money. The dept of Interior has never been able to explain what happened to it.
-"...account for billions of dollars the Indians say they are owed."-
We don't owe you squat. We conquered this land, and we didn't have to give you anything. Not only that, your "people" would've died out a long time ago were it not for civilization. In addition, gambling casinos AREN'T a proud Native American tradition.
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