Posted on 06/27/2010 12:26:08 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
When a New Orleans federal judge enjoined the moratorium on deepwater oil drilling last week, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and most other conservatives cheered.
They should have been horrified.
It is not the possibility of another environmental disaster that should have offended their sensibilities. Nor is it the fact that Judge Martin Feldman has a stock portfolio that, far from being diverse, is loaded with shares in companies that uniquely benefit from his ruling.
Rather, conservatives should have been disgusted that an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan revealed himself as an activist judge. Feldman spurned the judicial restraint that Jindal so often touts, instead substituting his judgment for that of the U.S. Department of the Interior and Congress.
Anchored by the constitutional concept of separation of powers is the precept that a judge should only overturn determinations by a federal agency if they are “arbitrary and capricious.”
Under settled law, a judge’s review of an administrative determination should be limited to determining whether there was a rational relationship between the facts found and the choice made.
A judge also is limited to a determination of claims properly asserted by the plaintiff.
Because a preliminary injunction changes the status quo without a full evidentiary hearing, the extraordinary relief is available only if the plaintiff can show “irreparable harm,” that is, harm that cannot later be compensated with any amount of money.
Jindal and other proponents of judicial restraint should have shuddered when they read Feldman’s pronouncements about “the robustness of a Gulf-wide industry” that supports “an estimated 150,000 jobs” and “is quite simply elemental to Gulf communities.”
Such determinations, which have nothing to do with the plaintiffs in the case before Feldman, might be appropriate as legislative findings in an act of Congress. They were grossly inappropriate in an appointed judge’s order.
Feldman’s dismissal of the agency’s rationale was so cavalier it would be humorous, but for the potential consequences to the Gulf.
He blasts the moratorium as being too broad, even though it was limited to six months (the Legislature authorized five years) and applied to only 33 deepwater drilling wells in the Gulf.
The Gulf has 7,000 active leases with 3,600 drilling and production structures.
Feldman called the moratorium’s ban on drilling below 500 feet “incomprehensible,” despite clear evidence that blowout preventers in wells of that depth or less are on the surface and thus easier to repair.
Mr. Feldman can balance environmental and economic concerns however he wants. Judge Feldman, though, must leave such balancing to the appropriate branches of government.
Far from applauding his decision, conservatives should be using its 22 pages of judicial activism to wipe oil from the beach.
The judge merely asked for the evidence and a legal cite for the Executive’s behavior, and seeing none crushed Obama’s minions like so many ants.
The author is an idiot. His argument is baseless. He understands nothing but emotion.
It’s not judicial activism if they strike down an executive order.
It’s called ‘checks and balances’.
Why is it only judicial activism when they oppose leftwing causes?
The judge should have slapped Salazar with felony forgery charges for adding to the document after the people signed it. Us “small people” would be facing jail time.
If liberals are screaming that conservatives should be horrified, its a pretty fair bet that the judge was on target.
As I understand it...the charge that the judge currently owns oil related stock is a bunch of bull.
That article is riddled with gross errors..
Turns out that the judge sold his stock in 09.
Personally, I loved his decision. It was rational and based on facts, not on the panicky, girlish emotions that drive the liberals.
oh please.
Undoing leftist activism is hardly a bad or radical thing.
The author insinuates that the reason the Judge struck down the moratorium is because he has financial interest in drilling continuing. HE OWNS STOCKS IN THE COMPANIES THAT DRILL IN THE GULF.
In other words, his judgment is not about the merits of the case but personal gain.
I understand that the Judge rid himself of any oil stocks in 2009. The author is not current with his facts.
I understand that the Judge rid himself of any oil stocks in 2009. The author is not current with his facts.
I believe the writer should be released at 500 feet with a rubber duckie and see how "on the surface" it is.
What a jackass. Salazar should be in jail. Feldman should have called in the local Federal prosecutor and ordered him to initiate a criminal investigation against Salazar.
His portfolio apparently includes a number of land-based producers, refiners, and a pipeline company. This is just yet another example of an attempted leftist smear.
The moratorium was arbitrary and capricious.
“The court is unable to divine or fathom a relationship between the findings and the immense scope of the moratorium,” Judge Feldman wrote in his decision.
Sorry about the double post. My puter is SLOW today!
Seems like this writer is squealing about the judge’s opinion and not the facts he based his ruling on.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.