SCOTUSblog » Deepwater drilling allowed
A federal judge in New Orleans on Thursday rejected the Obama Administration’s plea to delay his ruling that the government wrongly imposed a six-month moratorium on deepwater oil well drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. District Judge Martin L.C. Feldman, in a two page order (found here), said his ruling on Tuesday against the moratorium supplied the reasons for refusing to delay it while the Administration appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court. The judge refused the challengers’ plea to issue a new order commanding obedience to his ruling, saying that was premature. And he ordered public release of his financial disclosure statement for last year — something sought by environmental groups who favor the moratorium; in earlier such statements, the judge had indicated he had investments in the oil industry.
Really, the moral i wish to highlight in this story is not “naughty Obama”, but that conservatives need to avail themselves of the little brown paper bag more often.
When the executive overreaches, the other branches of government are available for cool-headed redirection. As it was under Bush, so it remains. The rancor is unnecessary. Obama, somewhat understandably, made what some of us felt was an emotional overreaction to the spill (others of us feel differently, i understand).
The court agreed with my admittedly amateur assessment, and life goes on. Note to Barton supporters: watch and learn.