Coming from a federal judge, this smackdown of Big Green is extraordinary. He was outraged by the so-called testimony of a couple of Interior Department "scientists"; labeling their words misleading, false, contradictory, and went on from there to accuse Interior of acting in bad faith and attempting to deceive the court.
You just never see something like this coming from the federal bench. This was butt-kicking, and well-deserved at that.
U.S. District Court judges aren't known for using inflammatory language in deciding the weighty issues that come before them on the federal bench. So it was remarkable to read the scorching indictment of a federal environmental agency and two of its scientists last week by Judge Oliver W. Wanger. (See also Washington Examiner Columnist Ron Arnold's detailed look at the case on Page 30.)The case concerns how the government should manage California water supplies and at the same time seek to preserve the delta smelt, an allegedly endangered species of minnow-like fish.