Judge Royce C. Lamberth, who made headlines for his handling of the Cobell trust fund lawsuit is assuming senior status in the federal court in Washington, D.C.

Lamberth was assigned to the case when it was filed in June 1996. In December 1999, he issued a landmark ruling that said individual Indians are entitled to an accounting of "all" of their trust funds, a decision that was upheld on appeal in February 2001.

Lamberth continued to hold the federal government accountable for the mismanagement of the Individual Indian Money trust. But the Bush administration accused him of bias after he issued a series of negative decisions, one of which compared the genocide of Indian people to the mishandling of the fund.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals eventually removed Lamberth from the case in July 2006. It was assigned to Judge Judge James Robertson, who oversaw settlement talks until his retirement in June 2010, and then to Judge Thomas Hogan, who finalized the $3.4 billion settlement.

Lamberth, who was chief judge of the district court, will maintain a reduced caseload as a senior judge.

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