Some Small Justice At Last

A federal judge has ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers was responsible for the flooding of St. Bernard Parish and the Lower 9th Ward after Hurricane Katrina.  The Corps was found negligent in its maintenance of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet canal system, or MR-GO.

"The failure of the Corps to recognize the destruction that the MRGO had caused and the potential hazard that it created is clearly negligent on the part of the Corps," said U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. in his ruling. "Furthermore, the Corps not only knew, but admitted by 1988, that the MRGO threatened human life ... and yet it did not act in time to prevent the catastrophic disaster that ensued with the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina."

"The Corps' lassitude and failure to fulfill its duties resulted in a catastrophic loss of human life and property in unprecedented proportions," Duval wrote. "The Corps' negligence resulted in the wasting of millions of dollars in flood protection measures and billions of dollars in Congressional outlays to help this region recover from such a catastrophe. Certainly, Congress would never have meant to protect this kind of nonfeasance on the part of the very agency that is tasked with the protection of life and property."

Duval's 156-page decision could result in the federal government paying $700,000 in damages to three people and a business in those areas, but also sets the stage for judgments worth billions of dollars against the government for damages suffered by as many as 100,000 other residents, businesses and local governments in those areas who filed claims with the corps after Katrina.

Duval ruled, however, that WDSU-TV anchor Norman Robinson and his wife were not entitled to damages because the corps' dredging of the MR-GO did not affect the levee system that protects eastern New Orleans from hurricane storm surge. That probably means eastern New Orleans residents would not be able to collect on claims they've filed against the corps, said attorneys representing plaintiffs in the case.

"The people of this city have been vindicated," said attorney Joseph Bruno, a leader of the large team of lawyers who represented the plaintiffs. "They didn't do anything wrong and it's time they be compensated."

But the reality is none of  NOLA's residents will see a dime from the government.  The question is how long will justice be delayed by the Obama administration?  It's a certainty that this will go before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and then to the Roberts Supreme Court in the years ahead, and there would already be four votes against the plaintiffs there: Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalia.

Odds are very, very good in fact that this ruling is merely a waste of time.  There's still a long, long way to go for the negligence of Katrina to ever be redressed...and if it ever even will be.