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Supreme Court Rejects Review of Cobell Issues

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by Brad Jolly, Partner

March 27, 2007

Without comment, the United States Supreme Court refused to hear the Cobell plaintiffs' appeal of the removal of Judge Royce Lamberth from the case at the request of the Bush administration. In July 2006, the D.C. Circuit removed Judge Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, from the Cobell litigation, claiming he had shown bias against the government in his decisions and remarks.

The Supreme Court also refused to hear the Cobell plaintiffs' appeal of the D.C. Circuit's reversal of Judge Lamberth's order directing Interior to disconnect its computers from the Internet. Judge Lamberth had found that the inadequate computer security at Interior endangered trust information from hackers. The D.C. Circuit agreed that Interior's security was inadequate, but held that the plaintiffs had not shown they would be directly harmed by computer attacks.

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