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Subject: Judge Defends Contempt Rulings
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 13:19:34 EST
Judge Defends Contempt Rulings
.c The Associated Press
By ANNE GEARAN
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal judge who slapped contempt-of-court citations
on two of President Clinton's Cabinet secretaries predicted critics would howl
about a Republican judge mistreating the Democratic administration.
After all, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth has heard it before.
Lamberth is the same judge who once called a former Clinton operative
dishonest and labeled a group of former Clinton officials ``hooligans.'' He
also granted generous license to the conservative legal group Judicial Watch
to question Clinton officials and nose around town for evidence that the White
House may have misused FBI files.
``I think it's created an impression, certainly it has for me, that Lamberth
has it in for the Clinton administration,'' said New York University law
professor Stephen Gillers.
Lamberth, an unabashed conservative in private life, is troubled by criticism
that he lets his politics show on the bench.
``I don't look at myself as this rabid partisan Republican that I get painted
as being,'' Lamberth said in an interview earlier this month in his
comfortable, paper-strewn chambers. ``At the same time, I'm proud that Ronald
Reagan appointed me.''
On Monday, Lamberth ruled that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Treasury
Secretary Robert Rubin must take blame for years of delays and ``outright
false statements'' in a lawsuit alleging government mishandling of Indian
trust funds.
The judge included a defense of himself against partisan sniping.
``Contrary to the impression some would seek to create, I do not relish
holding these Cabinet officials in contempt,'' Lamberth wrote. ``And I do so
today more out of sadness than anger.''
A garrulous Texan with a meaty handshake and a taste for the dramatic,
Lamberth has made a name for himself as an exacting courtroom taskmaster and
author of tart legal opinions.
The judge raised eyebrows among lawyers and politicos with a recent opinion
branding former Clinton Commerce Department officials ``hooligans'' and ``con
artists.''
In 1997, he scolded Clinton health-care guru Ira Magaziner for ``dishonest''
behavior in withholding White House documents from a doctors' group.
``I think it's fair to say there are lot of Democrats who do not hold him in
high esteem,'' said G. Allen Dale, a Washington defense attorney who calls
Lamberth tough but scrupulously evenhanded.
While careful not to comment directly on pending cases, Lamberth said he
understands why Democrats may take a dim view of his record.
``The Clinton administration has been before me so many times, and I've ruled
against the administration so often,'' he said. ``People forget the number of
times I ruled against the Bush administration.''
In 1990, after only three years on the bench, Lamberth delivered a testy
rebuff to the Bush White House for making improper appointments to a
regulatory board.
Lamberth, 54, can quote from memory the outraged response of at least one
Capitol Hill Republican.
The judge is hard on government representatives, no matter their politics,
several lawyers said.
``I think he is very demanding of governmental performance in any shape or
form and I don't think it is partisan,'' said former Carter Attorney General
Benjamin Civiletti.
Lamberth's high standards derive largely from his 20-year career as a
government lawyer before joining the federal bench in 1987. He says he was an
unusual choice with few political connections.
He had served in both Democratic and Republican administrations while rising
to lead the civil division of the federal prosecutor's office in Washington.
He even spent a year on detail to the White House when Jimmy Carter was
president.
``It bothers me when people say I'm antigovernment,'' Lamberth said. ``I'm not
antigovernment, but I don't think the government has any special license to do
things that are not proper.''
AP-NY-02-23-99 1318EST
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP
news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise
distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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