Judge dismisses suit against Army Corps of Engineers over Katrina levee breach

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: MSNBC

No story yet, just the "breaking" headline on the MSNBC home page.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

[Robbien]

1. No one but the victims are responsible for anything to do with Katrina

Didn't you hear?

Gaud, I hate this Bush DoJ.

[stillcool]

2. the only one's paying for it anyway.

[barb162]

9. Were the levees in better shape under other administrations?

I don't know.

[Robbien]

10. But it was the Bush Admin who was the one to get the advance notice of the danger

in the week before Katrina hit, the notice of high likelihood the levee would breakdown was sent to the WH.

edit: Of course the Bush WH didn't bother to notify the State of Louisiana.

[barb162]

11. I know.

You can't fix the levees that fast. By the time you got contractor bids, got them hired, etc. Those levees and a lot of other things in this country need major years long overhauls for which there really isn't the money. And if NOLA had been hit direct with a CAT 5, even new levees probably wouldn't have held as the waterwould have just gone right over the top of them.

[Robbien]

12. Who said fix them? Tell the people so they would know this time was different and to get out.

That's what everyone wanted. That is what they are pissed about.

Yes the levees couldn't be fixed in time, but everyone was thinking this was just another big hurricane that they would weather through. And they did. Just about every single person who stayed was a little bit dented but fine after Katrina left. Then the levees broke and hell broke out also.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

3. The story on AP:

Katrina Suit Vs. Army Corps Dismissed

22 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge threw out a key class-action lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over flooding from a levee breach after Hurricane Katrina.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval ruled that the Corps should be held immune over the failure of a wall on the 17th Street Canal that caused much of the flooding of New Orleans in August 2005.

The ruling relies on the Flood Control Act of 1928, which made the federal government immune when flood control projects like levees break.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jVbvfaTjQtevryQeGj7a0XOOwGlQD8UGHBL81

[aquart]

4. Considered a "lefty".

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanwood_Duval>

Stanwood Richardson Duval, Jr. (born February 1942), is a New Orleans-based U.S. District Court judge in the Eastern District of Louisiana who has served under the appointment of President Bill Clinton since 1994<1>.

Judge Duval is best known for having issued an injunction in 2000 which barred the State of Louisiana from issuing "Choose Life" vanity automobile license plates, as the legislature had approved in 1999. Duval ruled in favor of Planned Parenthood of America, which took the view that the choice of displaying the plates violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution because there was no alternative display available for supporters of abortion. Judge Duval's opinion was unanimously reversed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on April 13, 2005.A petition for rehearing en banc was filed by the plaintiffs and it was denied by an eight to eight vote of a divided court<2> <3> <4>.

The judge became an object of political consideration in the 2003 gubernatorial campaign, when the unsuccessful Republican candidate, Bobby L. Jindal, lashed out at "liberal" judges. According to WWL-TV's website: "A campaign mailing by supporters of . . . Jindal has a New Orleans-based federal judge and members of his Houma family seeing red. The literature, though it doesn't specifically name him, labels U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval, II, as a 'left-wing' jurist." <7>

Judge Duval also issued rulings in 2005 and 2006 in reference to the constitutional rights of victims of Hurricane Katrina. He extended the time that hurricane evacuees could continue receiving taxpayer-funded hotel stays. Kevin McGill (AP), <8>

[lonestarnot]

6. Not surprised. The legislature always exempts the government from liability in almost

any instance where they would have to pay big bucks.

[lonestarnot]

7. Not surprised. The legislature always exempts the government from liability in almost

any instance where they would have to pay big bucks.

[dsharp88]

5. Very bummed out by this... by an UNAFFECTED New Orleanian

I was one of the lucky ones not hurt by the amount of flooding in my neighborhood during Katrina. I still don't like this decision.

[barb162]

8. I haven't read the whole decision but if the ACE

doesn't get the funds it needs to fix the levees how is it supposed to keep the levees fixed? I think it's about falling apart infrastructure in this country in general and also giant natural disasters.

[Highway61]

13. Follow the trail

who appointed the judge?

[RantinRavin]

14. Clinton

Stanwood Richardson Duval, Jr. (born February 1942), is a New Orleans-based U.S. District Court judge in the Eastern District of Louisiana who has served under the appointment of President Bill Clinton since 1994

[Highway61]

15. Not good.....n/t