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24 NARF Legal Rev. 1 (1999)

handle is hein.journals/narf24 and id is 1 raw text is: Two Cabinet Officers Cited for Contempt by Federal Judge Calling this a trust fhnd is perhaps the most ironic use of the word trust in history. Time and time again Indians have trusted in the federal government and at each and every stage they have been betrayed. This is just a modern-day manifestation of the betrayal. Keith Hai-per, NARF Attorney The court is deeply disappointed that any liti- gant would fail to obey orders for production of documents, and then conceal and cover-up that disobedience with outright false statements that the court then relied upon. But when that liti- gant is the federal government, the misconduct is even more troubling. The institutions of our federal government cannot continue to exist if they cannot be trusted. The court here conduct- ed monthly status conferences where plaintiffs complained that the government was not pro- ducing the required documents. Because of the court's great respect for the Justice Department, the court repeatedly accepted the government's false statements as true. and brushed aside the plaintiffs' complaints. This two-week contempt trial has certainly proved that the court's trust in the Justice Department was misplaced. The federal government here did not just stub its toe. It abused the rights of the plaintiffs to obtain these trust docu- ments, and it engaged in a shocking pattern of decep- tion of the court. I have never seen more egregious misconduct by the federal government. In my own experience, government lawyers always strived to set the example by follow- ing the highest ethical VOLUME 24, NO. 1 standards that were then a model for the rest of the legal profession, and the Justice Department always took the position that its job was not to win an individual case at all costs, but to see that justice was done. Justice has not been done to these Indian beneficiaries. Moreover, justice delayed is justice denied. The court cannot tol- erate more empty promises to these Indian plain- tiffs. The time has come for action, and the court will make full use of its powers to ensure that this case gets back on track. So concluded United States District Judge Royce C. Lamberth on February 22, 1999 as the Court found by clear and convincing evidence Two Cabinet Officers Cited for Contempt by Federal Judge .................... page 1 CASE UPDATES Preliminary Injunction is Granted on Alaska's English Only Initiative .................. page 5 U.S. Supreme Court Rules Against Arizona Tribes ...... page 7 NARF Attorney .................. page 8 NARF Resources and Publications ...................... page 9 that Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior; Robert Rubin, Secretary of the Treasury; and Kevin Gover, Assistant Secretary, Department of the Interior were in civil contempt of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for their failure to produce court-ordered records in the largest law- suit ever brought by American Indians against the federal government. The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) and private counsel had filed the class action lawsuit WINTER/SPRING 1999 Digitized from Best Copy Available

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