Montana group's lawsuit reassigned
President of Montanans for Multiple Use hopes change will expedite the case
A Montanans for Multiple Use lawsuit that has been languishing in a U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., has been reassigned to a new judge, according to the group's president, Fred Hodgeboom.
Hodgeboom said he recently received a notification that the lawsuit has been moved from the court of Judge Richard Roberts to Thomas Hogan, the district's chief judge.
Hodbeboom said there wasn't a request to move the case, so he doesn't know why it was reassigned.
"Maybe it was case overload, we don't know," Hodgeboom said.
Hardly any action has been taken on the lawsuit since it was filed four years ago. It claims that the Flathead National Forest illegally has adopted forest-plan amendments, and as a result the forest has pursued unlawful forest management, including road closures.
During the summer of 2003, when multiple wildfires burned in the Flathead forest, Montanans for Multiple Use requested an injunction that would compel the Flathead forest to cease and desist from road closures under Forest Plan Amendment 19.
Judge Roberts rejected the request.
Since then, the Forest Service has asked the court to dismiss all of the claims in the lawsuit, but there has been no action on that request.
Hodgeboom said the reassignment will hopefully expedite the case.
"We believe that now our case will move forward and that, judging from some extreme statements in Roberts' ruling on our injunction request, that we may be more likely to get fair opinions from Judge Hogan," Hodgeboom wrote in correspondence with the Montanans for Multiple Use board of directors. "If we prevail on the dismissal issues our work to prove the merits of our case will get underway in earnest. If we lose, the ruling against us will be appealed."
Also involved in the case as intervening parties are the Swan View Coalition and Defenders of Wildlife.
Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.