Myers 'Not Fit' for Judgeship, Say Native Americans
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 3/2/2005
The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and the National Wildlife Federation joined forces Monday to voice their opposition to controversial judicial nominee William G. Myers III.Myers is one of several candidates previously rejected by the Senate but re-nominated by the Bush administration.
A former solicitor for the Department of the Interior who has been nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Myers is the first presidential nominee to the federal bench that either organization has ever opposed.
"Mr. Myers is simply not fit for a lifetime seat on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and our opposition will not waver," said NCAI President Tex Hall. "Tribal governments from every region of the country voted, through an NCAI resolution, to oppose him. He is a threat to our culture, our traditional values, and our way of life."
The NCAI resolution cites Myers' "deep lack of respect and understanding of the unique political relationship between the federal government and tribal governments" as well as his "demonstrated inability to set aside personal bias to act in a neutral and objective manner."
"Appointing Myers to the federal bench would be tantamount to initiating a rollback of 60 years of environmental protections," said Jim Lyon, National Wildlife Federation Senior Vice President for Conservation. "As a federal judge with life-time tenure, he would present a threat to the common sense conservation values that our organization and the American public have always embraced."
The Senate Judiciary Committee took up the Myers' nomination Tuesday. The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) has joined a coalition of nearly 200 disability rights, women's rights, human rights, senior citizens, conservation, and Native American organizations in their opposition to Myers' nomination.
LCCR Executive Director Wade Henderson called Myers a "terrible choice for the Ninth Circuit."
In one of only three formal opinions he issued as the Interior Department's top lawyer, Myers reversed a detailed opinion by his predecessor, dismantling federal laws that protect public lands and paving the way for a Canadian mining company to build a strip mine on a sacred Native American site. His second formal opinion, and its subsequent correction, undermined bipartisan work to harness free market economics for conservation efforts.
The Ninth Circuit considers more environmental cases than any other federal appeals court and hears the bulk of cases affecting Indian tribes.
