Myers before Senate Judiciary Committee again

Politics
Myers before Senate Judiciary Committee again
Tuesday, March 1, 2005

The Senate Judiciary Committee today will hold its second confirmation for Bush judicial nominee Bill Myers.

Myers, a former lobbyist for the ranching and grazing industry, has been re-nominated for a spot on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The court hears an extreme large number of Indian law cases from western states, Alaska and Hawaii.

Tribes and tribal organizations unanimously oppose Myers due to his actions as the Interior Department's top lawyer from July 2001 to December 2003. He rescinded a legal opinion that paved the way for a gold mine on land sacred to the Quechan Nation. He never consulted the tribe but met with the mining company before he acted.

Myers also intervened on behalf of the department in a mining dispute affecting the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony in Nevada. The tribe and its non-Indian neighbors banded together to oppose a 24/7 kitty litter mine next to the reservation. But Myers filed a brief siding with the mining company after local officials rejected the mine.

On trust, Myers played a key role in the Cobell v. Norton lawsuit and how it was handled. At one point, senior officials accused him of making an "intimidating" request to sign onto a status report that they did not feel reflected true progress on trust reform. The Native American Rights Fund also says he should be held in contempt for allowing trust records to be destroyed.

When asked by the committee to list his most important cases, Myers listed the Navajo Nation and White Mountain Apache trust cases that the Bush administration took the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices rejected the government's attempt to limit its trust obligations to tribal beneficiaries.

The hearing takes place at 9:30am in Room 226 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building. The live webcast can be accessed at http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=1392.