[Shadow_Group] Rejected Last Year, Bush Anti-Environmental Judicial Nominees Are Back

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January 27, 2005 | Back Issues 

Rejected Last Year, Bush Anti-Environmental Judicial Nominees Are Back 
Hearings will begin soon in the Senate Judiciary Committee on a series of President Bush's federal court nominees who were rejected by the Senate last year. President Bush has renominated seven appeals court nominees who were blocked in the last session. 

First up is one of the most anti-environmental of the Bush nominees, William G. Myers III. Mr. Bush aims to seat Myers on one of the most important benches in the nation, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The 9th Circuit has jurisdiction over three-fourths of all federal lands, covering nine western states -- the scene of perennial battles over mining, drilling, grazing and timber. 

Until he resigned in October, 2003, Myers was chief attorney for the Bush Department of Interior, where he helped shape the weakening of the Endangered Species Act. He also helped curb federal protections designed to prevent destructive mining and overgrazing of public lands. 

During Myers' tenure at Interior, the department's inspector general ruled that despite meeting 37 times with representatives of the grazing and mining industries, including former clients, Myers--a former lobbyist for mining and grazing interests--did not violate an ethics agreement. 

Noting that the Senate has already approved 204 of President Bush's 260 nominees, Earthjustice senior legislative counsel Glenn Sugameli says "Renomination of so many judges who the Senate has refused to confirm has never happened before. President Bush is trying to convert the Senate into a rubber stamp." 

Before joining the Bush Interior Department, Myers served as a lobbyist for the National Mining Association. He was also executive director of a trade association promoting the interests of ranchers who graze sheep and cattle on public lands, and was director of federal lands for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. 

In one legal opinion he wrote at Interior, Myers overturned the opinion of his predecessor so that Interior Secretary Gale Norton could approve a 1,650-acre cyanide heap-leach gold mine in California. 

During his previous nomination for the 9th Circuit last January, not a single member of the American Bar Association's committee that rates federal judicial nominees found Myers "well qualified." More than a third rated him "unqualified." Unlike most judicial nominees, Myers has never been a judge. 

His nomination was opposed by the National Congress of American Indians, representing more than 250 tribal governments, and by 23 public interest organizations. 

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