DENVER POST EDITORIAL 4/19

Indians find powerful ally

Thursday, April 19, 2001 - There's a reason our U.S. Constitution 
established an independent court system, in which judges make decisions 
based on the law and not on political convenience.

Seldom has the necessity of an independent judiciary been more clear 
than in the lawsuit American Indians brought against the federal 
government for its mismanagement of Indian trust funds.
 
Lawyers for the U.S. Department of Interior have claimed for months 
that the Bureau of Indian Affairs was progressing swiftly toward 
deciphering how much the Indians were owed, and toward correcting the 
accounting and computer problems that had fouled up the accounts in 
the first place. Then recently an internal memo surfaced, in which the 
government acknowledged that the whole effort to clean up the trust 
fund mess was "imploding." 

Given the government's multiplying lies, U.S. District Judge Royce 
Lamberth could no longer believe anything the Interior or Justice 
departments said in court. Those departments, though, hold the keys to 
the case, including the documents needed to sort out what money is owed 
to whom. 

Lamberth already had appointed one special assistant, known in legal 
parlance as a special master, to find the missing documents and 
discover why the government repeatedly has destroyed paperwork that 
the judge specifically told the federal agencies to hand over to the 
court. The special master, Alan Balaran, has begun that task. 

But the government's arrogance now has forced Lamberth to seek yet 
another set of eyes and ears to help him unearth the truth. On Monday, 
Lamberth appointed Joseph Kieffer - an engineer, lawyer and systems 
management expert - as a "court monitor." In his new job, Kieffer will 
watch the Interior Department's day-to-day efforts to resolve the trust 
fund accounting mess. 

Kieffer's presence will give Lamberth credible, accurate information 
about the Interior Department's progress - or lack thereof. 

But his appointment also figuratively slaps Interior and Justice 
officials not just for incompetence, but also for stonewalling. 

If not for the court's ability to act independently, then the Indians - 
or any other citizens - would have no recourse against government 
misconduct. 

So often politicians rail against judges and the court system. In 
reality, though, it is far more common for the courts to protect 
ordinary citizens from government abuses. But, thankfully, there are 
souls like Royce Lamberth running American courtrooms. 

(Posted at www.indiantrust.com)