An Enemy of the Environment (NYTimes Editorial)

The Bush administration has a troubling record of putting lobbyists in influential positions in the executive branch. Now it is taking the practice a step further by nominating a longtime lawyer and lobbyist for the mining and cattle industries, William Myers III, to an important judgeship. His extreme views on the environment, his hard-edged ideological approach to the law and his close ties to industries whose cases he would be deciding make Mr. Myers unqualified to be an appeals court judge. …

At Interior, he had an obligation to represent the public more broadly, but continued to carry water for special interests. His hometown newspaper, The Idaho Statesman, editorialized that although he had stated in applying for the job that he had ”no particular ax to grind,” he had ended up acting ”less like an attorney, and more like an apologist for his old friends in the cattle industry.”

Mr. Myers has been nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco, which plays a critical role in overseeing the Western states, where environmental disputes have been most heated. The Senate should insist that the president nominate someone with a proven record of defending broader public interests, rather than those of a powerful few.

Bush continues to stack the government with zealots. A new president will be able to sweep the executive branch clean, but judges are appointed for life — they are the lasting legacy of Bush. mjh