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At U.S. Urging, Court Throws Lamberth Off Indian Case
In making the rare request to have Lamberth removed, the Justice Department said that besides using intemperate language, Lamberth has ignored appellate rulings and accused the government of "falsification, spite and obstinate litigiousness" with "no legal or factual basis." Yesterday, a department spokesman said the "decision speaks for itself."
The appeals court's opinion quotes at length from Lamberth's July 2005 opinion, in which Lamberth writes that "the entire record in this case tells the dreary story of Interior's degenerate tenure as Trustee-Delegate for the Indian trust -- a story shot through with bureaucratic blunders, flubs, goofs and foul-ups, and peppered with scandals, deception, dirty tricks and outright villainy -- the end of which is nowhere in sight."
  U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth had been hearing the 10-year-old lawsuit in which thousands of American Indians allege the government has mismanaged billions of dollars in federal trust funds. (By Charles Dharapak -- Associated Press) 
 Which President signed the bill establishing the Smithsonian Institution? A. James K. Polk B. Zachary Taylor C. Franklin Pierce D. James Buchanan  
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But the appeals court said Lamberth was right about the Interior Department -- to a point:
"Although the July 12 opinion contains harsh -- even incendiary -- language, much of that language represents nothing more than the views of an experienced judge who, having presided over this exceptionally contentious case for almost a decade, has become 'exceedingly ill disposed towards [a] defendant' that has flagrantly and repeatedly breached its fiduciary obligations."
The case was heard by a three-judge panel that included Senior Judge Laurence H. Silberman, Judge Janice Rogers Brown and Tatel.
Yesterday's decision would be a professional insult for any judge. Sporkin, referring to his removal from the Microsoft case, said it "was not a good feeling, obviously."
Lamberth declined to comment on the ruling. An Interior Department statement said, "We agree with the Court that the rulings today present an opportunity for a fresh start."
But for Lamberth, the decision might also provide a measure of relief. The case has often seemed like a war of attrition between the court and the two parties. The case's docket sheet contains more than 3,000 entries and, at different times, Lamberth has held former interior secretaries Gale A. Norton and Bruce Babbitt in contempt of court.
"On numerous occasions over the last nine years," Lamberth wrote in the now-infamous July 12 memo, "the Court has wanted to simply wash its hands of Interior and its iniquities once and for all.''
