An Example Of True Judicial Restraint: Judge Robert Chambers Affirms The Highland Mining 404 Permit

After my post on judicial restraint – and the lack thereof – in Texas v. EPA, the opinion issued last week by Judge Robert Chambers, in Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, affirming the Corps' § 404 permit for Highland Mining's Reylas Surface Mine, seemed particularly notable. I cannot recall of similar example of a judge who was almost visibly restraining himself, issuing a decision that he plainly did not want to issue, for one reason: because he thought that the proper application of the law dictated the result, however distasteful to him personally. It is true that the 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals had previously reversed Judge Chambers in a similar case, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition v. Aracoma Coal Company, but not all judges would take such a rebuke so to heart.