A Bush-appointed US judge who it now turns out has amazing bad judgement when it comes to sharing political email jokes about the President and choosing his friends was involved in an interesting artefact case a while back. In mid September 2011, Montana Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull threw out a lawsuit claiming federal agents illegally raided Montana's Custer Battlefield Museum during an investigation into the alleged sale of fraudulent battlefield artefacts and eagle feathers. He dismissed as frivolous claims by museum director Christopher Kortlander that the raids were illegal and the agents had violated his constitutional rights.
Kortlander has described his lawsuit as a test case of the government's handling of artifact crime investigations, including a high-profile 2009 raid on dealers in the Four Corners region of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. He claimed his rights to free speech, bear arms, to be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures, and nearly a half-dozen other freedoms were violated in the raids.Cebull reportedly ruled that Kortlander had failed to show his rights were violated.
Matthew Brown, 'Judge throws out lawsuit over Custer museum raids', Associated Press, September 13, 2011.
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