Majority Of Judges Hearing Drilling Moratorium Appeal Attended Oil-Funded Junkets

[ensho]

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/07/08/junkets-for-judges/


Last month, Judge Martin Feldman, a federal trial judge in Louisiana, handed down a poorly-reasoned opinion lifting the Obama Administration’s temportary moratorium on new oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Judge Feldman’s most recent financial disclosure form indicates that he is heavily invested in oil companies.

Today in New Orleans, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will consider whether to stay Feldman’s decision. According to a new report by the Alliance for Justice, however, it is unlikely that these Fifth Circuit judges will approach the case without the perception of bias.

Judges Jerry Smith and Eugene Davis, both of whom are assigned to today’s panel, attended expense-paid “junkets for judges” sponsored by an oil-industry front group:

-snip of details-

Both men also worked as oil-industry litigators before their appointments to the federal bench, and Judge Davis owns as much as $30,000 in oil investments. The third judge on the panel, Judge James Dennis, has not received any free trips from the oil industry, but he is heavily invested in oil stocks with investments that may total as much as $305,000.

Should this oil-soaked panel nonetheless decide to reinstate the drilling moratorium, the industry may appeal that decision to the full Fifth Circuit. Of the sixteen active judges eligible to hear such an appeal, ten of them have oil investments, including the court’s Chief Judge. In addition to owning as much as $330,000 in oil investments, Chief Judge Edith Jones ranked fourth of a list of judges who have attended junkets.

A full list of the Fifth Circuit’s judges and the extent of their financial holdings in oil companies is copied below:


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we should make a big stink over this

talk about a stacked deck

[Jennicut]

1. Justice in America, bought and paid for.

We will never win and the oil companies have influence everywhere. Only when we reach total peak oil and people are screaming for alternatives will it ever change.

[blindpig]

2. That's due diligence, capitalists bastards cover all the bases.

Kill Capitalism

[napi21]

3. Unfortunately, I think that's a description of the majority of wealthier people living in and around

the Gulf region. I would expect a similar showing in any area that is dominated by one particular industry.

[Romulox]

4. Money = speech, which means the rich get to talk a lot more than you and I! nt

[ensho]

5. Obama and team should lay a trap for these judges

give them enough rope

maybe he already has

well, there is always hope

[tom_paine]

6. Conflict of Interest rules and laws are for Liberals and Plebians

They are NOT, repeat, NOT for the Aristocracy.

Of course the deck is stacked. Now that the Temporary Middle Class is being revoked due to Peak Oil, which means Peak Economy, our Aristocratic Masters are taking it all back.

It's just like the Big Media Lie that the Aristocracy needs the Peasntry to buy their cheap crap.

Was that the case in the Middle Ages? Did the Aristocracy need the Peasants to be well paid, fed, clothed, and cared for? Hell no! They needed us stupid, weak, desperate, confused, and divided because such people make excellent subjects in unjust, inequitable systems.

As it was before, so shall it be again.. Hell, we're more thanhalfway there already. The only question is how fast will Peak Oil come upon us and strip the bullshit window-dressing off the reality?

[Hawkowl]

7. We are all serfs

We do NOT live in a democracy, or republic, or magic fairyland. We live in fascist nightmare as envisioned by George Orwell. The only freedoms we have are the freedom to work like dogs until we are broken and then cast aside to die in whichever manner we choose with no sympathy from our corporate masters.