Judge Uproots Loggers’ Suit

ST. LOUIS — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Minnesota loggers who claimed the U.S. Forest Service was promoting the “religion” of environmentalism by restricting timber cutting in national forests.

The suit turned on the novel legal claim that the Forest Service was foisting the spiritual values of the environmental movement onto all Americans by caving in to anti-logging pressure. But District Judge James M. Rosenbaum threw out the lawsuit as “unseemly and baseless.”

Ruling that environmentalists have as much right as anyone to press their cause--even if they are motivated by a religious reverence for trees--the judge called the loggers’ lawsuit “stunning” in its disregard for democratic principles. He then ordered the loggers to prove they did not file the suit solely to “harass and delay” their foes. Unless they prove good faith, Rosenbaum vowed to sanction the loggers’ attorney for wasting the court’s time with a frivolous claim.