LA Weekly

The Environmental Law Institute has studied the outcomes of 217 National Environmental Policy Act cases and come out with a report analyzing the decisions of federal district court judges based on the political affiliation of the president who appointed them. The result: "[J]udges appointed by Democratic presidents ruled in favor of environmental plaintiffs 60 percent of the time, while judges appointed by a Republican president ruled in their favor less than half as often -- 28 percent of the time."

And judges appointed by George W. Bush ruled in favor of environmentalists and against pro-development industry only 17 percent of the time. That's four cases.

Senate Democrats have so far blocked the confirmation of seven Bush judicial nominees, including William G. Myers III, an Idaho lawyer with virtually no judicial qualifications (he never participated in a trial) and a 22-year-long career as an anti-environmentalist lobbyist for Republican administrations. Bush had nominated Myers for a position on the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a court pro-development opportunists clearly regard as an obstacle to their progress. Next time, things may turn out differently for nominees like Myers.

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