Judicial Nominee Criticized
Actions at Interior Dept. Questioned by Inspector General
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 16, 2005; Page A04
The Interior Department's inspector general has criticized the actions of a judicial
nominee who is seen by some Republicans as the best hope of breaking Senate
Democrats' long-standing resistance to some of President Bush's choices for federal
judgeships.
The judicial nominee, former Interior Department solicitor William G. Myers III,
bypassed normal procedures in dealing with a Wyoming rancher who repeatedly violated
federal grazing laws, according to a letter from the inspector general.
Opponents of Myers's nomination -- one of several filibustered by Democrats last year --
say the complaint adds new arguments against the appointee. Yesterday, they urged
senators to look into the complaint during a Judiciary Committee hearing to be held in
about two weeks.
Myers is an Idaho-based lawyer whom Bush has tapped for the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the 9th Circuit. Last July, Senate Republicans did not get the 60 votes needed to stop a
filibuster led by Democrats, who criticized Myers's environmental record.
Myers is among the 12 candidates for federal appeals court seats resubmitted to the
Senate by Bush this week. Key Republicans have signaled that they want Myers to be the
first of the group sent back to the Senate floor, hoping Democrats would find him more
acceptable than others. Yesterday's disclosure of the inspector general's letter could
complicate that strategy.
In 2002, Myers was the solicitor for the Interior Department when it was embroiled in a
dispute over grazing rights in Wyoming with rancher Frank Robbins.
Last week, Interior's inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, criticized the solicitor's role in
seeking an agreement with Robbins, saying "normal processes were circumvented" and
the "concerns articulated by the Department of Justice and the BLM [Bureau of Land
Management] field office were ignored by the SOL [Office of the Solicitor]."
In a letter to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Devaney did not
mention Myers by name, but he repeatedly criticized the solicitor's office under his
leadership. "We found . . . an inappropriate level of programmatic involvement by the
SOL, and a profound lack of transparency in the overall negotiation and agreement
process," Devaney wrote.
The environmental group Community Rights Counsel publicly released Devaney's letter
yesterday, saying in a statement: "After a two-year investigation into an outrageous
settlement that gave a politically connected Wyoming rancher named Frank Robbins
virtually carte blanche authority to violate federal grazing laws," Devaney "placed blame
squarely upon the Office of Solicitor, headed by Solicitor William Myers." Doug
Kendall, the group's executive director, called on the Judiciary Committee to fully
explore the matter.
Myers, a Virginia native who received a bachelor's degree from William & Mary in 1977,
did not respond to a phone call and an e-mail message seeking a comment yesterday.
In a Feb. 5, 2004, Judiciary Committee hearing into his first nomination, Myers distanced
himself from the Robbins dispute. "I was not involved in the negotiations or discussions
of that settlement other than to tell a subordinate attorney that he had authority to try to
settle that case," he testified. He added that he was not aware of the settlement's final
terms.
Community Rights Counsel, however, cited a November 2003 letter by Devaney that it
said "confirms that Myers was personally briefed on the status of the Robbins settlement
on several occasions."
A June 2003 article in the Billings Gazette in Montana described Robbins as a "rancher
with a history of violations and clashes with the Bureau of Land Management." Robbins's
dispute with the BLM, it said, "has become a saga of escalating frustration on both sides,
complaints and countercomplaints, lawsuits, appeals and now a unique settlement
agreement," reached during Myers's time as solicitor. "The deal is highly unusual within
the BLM and appears to depart from long-running requirements spelled out in federal law
about who can receive grazing permits."
Early last year, the Bureau of Land Management canceled the agreement after Robbins
was cited for willful trespass of cattle.
Myers spent much of his career as a lobbyist for mining and grazing interests. The liberal
group People for the American Way, which opposes Myers and several other Bush
judicial nominees, said that, as Interior's solicitor, Myers "continued to serve the
corporate interests for which he had lobbied, working zealously to overturn decisions and
erase regulations which protected our public lands from corporate interests."
Republicans have defended Myers's record and have accused Senate Democrats of being
obstructionists. Last year's filibuster of Myers, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said at the
time, "is nothing more than a reflection of special-interest-group disdain for policies
favored by farmers, ranchers, miners, the Bush Interior Department or anyone else who
advocates balanced uses of western lands."
Research editor Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.