Bush's Justice Department Wants To Remove "Biased" Judge

This one really ticks me off - U.S. Seeks to Replace Judge In Long Case of Indian Trusts. After nine years of legal struggle between the tribes and the federal government, nine years in which the Whitehouse (under Clinton and Bush) refused to release documents and accounting of the trust. The so-called "Justice Department" (under our "friend" Alberto Gonzales) has decided they want to replace U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth because he is "biased" towards the tribes.

The battle has raged almost a decade in court between the tribes and the Department of the Interior over lack of royalties and payments that are rightly due the tribes for leases and rents. The characterization of Lamberth's ruling speaks volumes:

"Lamberth's ruling, the Justice Department complained, described the Interior Department to be a "dinosaur -- the morally and culturally oblivious hand-me-down of a disgracefully racist and imperialist government that should have been buried a century ago, the last pathetic outpost of the indifference and anglocentrism we thought we had left behind.""

The issue in question stretches back to over 100 years of theft of monies due the tribes. It makes sense to me that Lamberth's ruling would make reference to both current and historical policies and events. After all, the suit covers both historical and current policies and events. Not only that, Lamberth has spent nine years of his life looking at the evidence to come to his ruling.

At stake here is the mismanagement of billions of dollars for oil and gas leases, grazing rights, etc, including $400 million in 260,000 Indian Trust accounts that have gone unpaid. The totals run into the billions of dollars all together. The tribes have agreed to a settlement of $27.5 billion (far less than is actually owed). The Justice Department obviously wants to "protect" the government from the tab - or the reality of how the tribes have been cheated and defrauded - from coming out.

I'm with Judge Lamberth on this one in calling the pattern "racist."