News Focus - Judge Hoeveler   

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  November 2003

28-November-03

Judge says he wanted best for Glades
BY JAY WEAVER
© Miami Herald
Senior federal Judge William M. Hoeveler was thinking this week about the movie Philadelphia: Actor Tom Hanks, playing an attorney dying of AIDS who sues his law firm for firing him, testifies he became a lawyer to do some justice. Hoeveler said he, too, could identify with that principle during his 26-year career on the bench. In fact, that is what compelled him last spring to criticize proposed legislation that would extend the deadline for cleaning up the Everglades, he said. His remarks, both in court and to the press, led to his removal from the landmark case that he had overseen since 1988 because the sugar industry claimed they showed his bias. ''I felt what was happening was unjust to the people of Florida and the Everglades,'' Hoeveler, 81, said in his first public comments since September, when he was removed. ``I was angry. I believed I wouldn't be biased in my decisions. . . . I don't think anyone who knew me would have drawn that conclusion.'' His main goal: ``I wanted what was best for the Everglades.'' For 15 years, Hoeveler had presided over the federal government's environmental case against the state, which resulted in a consent order forcing Florida to clean up the ravaged River of Grass and a restoration bill of $8 billion.  Read more

 

  September 2003

28-September-03

Hoeveler will be remembered as Glades hero
By Carl Hiassen
© Miami Herald
For those who've fought so long to save what remains of the Everglades, it's tempting to see a dark conspiracy in the surprising and abrupt removal of U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler from Case No. 88-1886. The decision to disqualify Hoeveler, regarded as one of the fairest and most able jurists in our courts, was a bombshell to conservationists. For 15 years Hoeveler has been a patient watchdog over the contentious Everglades cleanup process -- and a pain in the butt to Big Sugar, the most prodigious polluter of Florida waters. It was U.S. Sugar that petitioned to have Hoeveler booted off the case last summer, after the judge expressed grave concerns about a new law that extended by up to a decade the deadline for reducing harmful fertilizer levels in farm and urban runoff. Hoeveler, and all Floridians, had good cause to worry.  Read more

Judge's ouster reveals muscle of Big Sugar
© Key West Citizen
The strong hand of Big Sugar tightened its grip around the throat of the Everglades this week.
Responding to a motion filed by sugar companies, the chief of the U.S. District Court circuit removed Judge William Hoeveler from the Everglades pollution case he had overseen since its inception in 1988. Judge Hoeveler was the man on the bench when Dexter Lehtinen, then the U.S. Attorney for South Florida, went to court to prove that the emperor had no clothes. It was an ugly truth that no one had wanted to acknowledge for decades: The state of Florida was using its public waterway system to poison the Everglades.  Read more

 

25-September-03

An Everglades Champion Is Dumped
Editorial
© Tampa Tribune
Last spring, utilizing an army of lobbyists, Florida's sugar industry managed to convince the Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush to adopt legislation that weakened Everglades water quality standards. Now Big Sugar has orchestrated the removal from the Everglades cleanup case of the federal judge who has overseen the litigation for 15 years. Judge William Hoeveler's offense? He told the truth. When reporters asked Hoeveler about the Everglades legislation, he said it would change the standards established in his court order and agreed to by the state. He found the act ``clearly defective.''  Read more

Sweetening the Bench
Editorial
© The Ledger
Life for Big Sugar just became much sweeter. It has gotten rid of what it believed to be a sourpuss judge. Senior U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler has presided over the clean-up of the Everglades in South Florida ever since 1988 -- when the United States Department of the Interior sued the South Florida Water Management District for failing to prevent farm and urban runoff into the Everglades. Hoeveler has been a stickler for holding the state to its promises to clean up the Everglades -- a position that the sugar industry construes as being "biased." He has also been outspoken about the industry's attempts to dilute the current law. When the Legislature changed the law this year to ease phosphorus pollution concentration levels, Hoeveler openly criticized the measure:  Read more

Judge's Removal Was Warranted
Editorial
© Sun-Sentinel
William Hoeveler is a superb federal judge and a credit to his profession. But he's human, and he made a mistake when he chose to discuss the Everglades cleanup case with the media, including the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Chief U.S. District Judge William Zloch was right to remove him from the case. As U.S. Sugar Corp. contended in its motion to oust Hoeveler, the judge became a "political actor" in the case when he made his extra-judicial
remarks scolding state legislators and environmental regulators and chiding Gov. Jeb Bush for having been "misled" about the cleanup project. Specifically, Hoeveler criticized state officials for amending a 1994 Everglades cleanup law, an action that moved the 2006 cleanup deadline back 10 years. The judge called the rewrite of the Everglades Forever Act "clearly defective."  Read more

 

 

24-September-03

Tough judge removed from Everglades case
By Robert P. King, Staff Writer
© Palm Beach Post
In a victory for the sugar industry, a veteran federal judge was removed from a landmark Everglades lawsuit Tuesday for telling the press that he doesn't trust Gov. Jeb Bush, state lawmakers and South Florida water managers. The ouster of U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler was a devastating setback for environmentalists, who have long viewed him as their bulwark against the growers' money and political power. The 81-year-old Miami judge, best known for presiding at the trial of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, has overseen the Everglades case since it began 15 years ago. In May, he announced his intention to appoint a federal overseer to make sure the state keeps its promises to clean polluted runoff in the Everglades.  Read more

Glades cleanup setback predicted
The removal of Judge William Hoeveler from the Everglades case could benefit Gov. Jeb Bush and the sugar industry
By Lesley Clark
© Miami Herald
Score one for Big Sugar and Gov. Jeb Bush. With the sidelining of the outspoken federal judge who is considered the top legal guardian of the Everglades, environmentalists predict a setback for Everglades restoration -- and perhaps a tougher case for critics who charge that Bush-backed legislation will slow the cleanup. Senior U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler, removed Tuesday from overseeing Everglades restoration efforts for critical remarks he made to newspapers, has been the federal government's point person on Everglades cleanup since
1988 -- and his replacement will need time to get up to speed, environmentalists said. ''The learning curve and the experience is lost. It's gone,'' said Thom Rumberger, an attorney with the Everglades Trust. ``It's a setback and Sugar loves it. If they can push out the cleanup
another five or 10 or 15 years, it's all to their advantage.''  Read more

Big Sugar wins bid to oust judge from case
By Curtis Morgan
© Miami Herald
The industry contended that Hoeveler's pointed public comments showed that he favors environmentalists. Federal Judge William Hoeveler was ordered off an Everglades cleanup
lawsuit he had overseen for 15 years on Tuesday, a stunning legal victory for Big Sugar, which had argued the venerable jurist had strayed from law into politics. Chief U.S. District Judge William Zloch removed Hoeveler, agreeing with the U.S. Sugar Corp. that Hoeveler's pointed public criticisms of intense industry lobbying over ''clearly defective'' Everglades
legislation overstepped proper judicial bounds. The ruling dismayed environmentalists who viewed the judge as a powerful ally for Everglades protection, leaving them with a new judge, Federico Moreno, whose record on environmental issues is virtually blank.  Read more

Judge in Glades case removed
Comments to the media showed bias, the ruling says. That ends 15 years of him overseeing Everglades restoration.
By Craig Pittman
© St. Petersburg Times
For 15 years, one federal judge oversaw the cleanup of the Everglades. He pored over documents, listened to legal arguments, sifted through scientific studies. He even toured the River of Grass by airboat. But on Tuesday U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler was removed from the Everglades case, not for misbehaving in court or making outrageous rulings. South Florida's chief judge removed him for talking to reporters. Hoeveler's comments this spring blasting Gov. Jeb Bush, the Legislature, the sugar industry and the South Florida Water Management District "demonstrate an objective doubt as to Judge Hoeveler's continued
impartiality," wrote Chief Judge William Zloch. Contacted at home, Hoeveler at first declined to comment because, "I may say something that is impermissible."  Read more

  July 2003

26-July-03

Agencies back Hoeveler as 'Glades overseer
© Sun-Sentinel
The federal government and Florida Department of Environmental Protection have filed legal motions arguing that U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler should continue his watch over the Everglades cleanup. In their joint response, U.S. Justice Department and DEP officials opposed a June 4 motion from U.S. Sugar to have Hoeveler disqualified as a cleanup overseer. Sugar growers contend the judge has shown bias against their industry and acted improperly in recent remarks and court actions on the cleanup directive he has supervised since 1992.  Read more

June 2003

25-June-03

Fla. Judge Fights To Preserve Everglades
By Catherine Wilson, Associated Press Writer
© Guardian Unlimited- United Kingdom
MIAMI (AP) - The legacy of William Hoeveler may be 15 years spent policing a complex lawsuit mired in biology and hydrology that is intended to restore the Everglades to its bygone days as a free-flowing, slow-growth marsh. Best known as the judge who sent Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to prison in 1992, the 80-year-old jurist returned to the headlines in the spring by saying a new Everglades law heralded by Gov. Jeb Bush was
``clearly defective'' even before it was signed. The law would extend some of the deadlines for Everglades restoration. Stiffened by a stroke and back trouble but still ramrod straight in person and in deed, the judge insists the federal and state governments are bound by their commitments to him in a 1992 consent decree - no matter what state lawmakers concoct. The agreement with the state dictates a 2006 deadline for cleaning up the quality of water flowing into Everglades National Park from the broader Everglades ecosystem above it. But sugar growers say Hoeveler's 15 years of policing the Everglades is long enough. Claiming the judge has turned into a bully with a political bent, they asked two courts to throw him off the case for bias. They don't want him in charge of any more Everglades hearings.  Read more

23-June-03

Federal judge scrutinized over Everglades remarks
Sugar industry: Comments show bias
By Jay Weaver and Curtis Morgan 
© Miami Herald
In the spring, a federal judge accused state legislators of messing with the court-ordered Everglades cleanup, saying their bill was ''clearly defective'' and that the governor was being ``misled by persons who do not have the best interests of the Everglades at heart.''   Senior U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler is about to learn whether his unusually provocative comments will cost him the job of enforcing the cleanup agreement that he orchestrated a decade ago.  The sugar industry is seeking to have the prominent Miami judge pulled off
the case, claiming his ''bully pulpit'' comments in court and to reporters betray a bias against sugar interests.  Several legal experts say Hoeveler may have entered the realm of impropriety when he spoke with reporters about the Everglades case, but they stress it's
rare for a federal judge to be removed over an issue of fairness -- unless he says something flagrantly prejudicial.  Such removals are uncommon, because federal judges rarely talk publicly about their cases. Possible punishment ranges from a public reprimand to
removal from a case.   Read more  

11-June-03

Judge to remain on Glades case
By Curtis Morgan
© The Miami Herald
A federal appeals court Tuesday threw out one of two legal efforts by the sugar industry to remove a Miami federal judge from his longtime role of overseeing Everglades cleanup. 
Sugar companies said Senior District Judge William Hoeveler had overstepped his bounds by publicly criticizing an Everglades cleanup bill passed by the Florida Legislature this year. The bill postponed the deadline for reducing Everglades pollution from sugar farm and urban runoff. On Tuesday, Gov. Jeb Bush signed the bill, which was tightened from an earlier version that Everglades activists and even some Republican congressmen thought was too lenient. Environmentalists hailed the appeals court's decision as a victory for Hoeveler, a venerable jurist they consider the last, best defense of tough pollution standards in the Everglades. ''The court obviously saw through their ruse and sent them packing,'' said
Thom Rumberger, an attorney for Audubon of Florida. But sugar growers stood by their cases, arguing the decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta was based on a technicality. Another motion to remove the judge remains pending. ''They didn't rule on the merits of the case,'' said Jorge Dominicis, vice president of Florida Crystals, whose affiliate, New Hope Sugar Co., filed the petition last week in Atlanta. That petition, like a separate motion filed in District Court in Miami by the United State Sugar Corp., argued that Hoeveler had overstepped his judicial authority over the past few months by issuing criticisms of the sugar-supported legislative overhaul of Everglades pollution laws.  Read more

08-June-03

80-yr-old jurist fights to preserve his Everglades legacy
By Catherine Wilson, Associated Press
© Naples News/AP

©  Wilfredo Lee, Associated Press 2003
District Judge William Hoeveler poses near an oil painting of the Everglades that hangs over 
his desk in his chambers in Miami. Best known as the federal judge who sent Manuel Noriega to 
prison, the 80-year-old jurist returned to the headlines this spring by saying a new Everglades 
law heralded by Gov. Jeb Bush was "clearly defective" even before it was signed.

MIAMI — The legacy of William Hoeveler may be 15 years spent policing a complex lawsuit mired in biology and hydrology that is intended to restore the Everglades to its bygone days as a free-flowing, slow-growth marsh. But sugar growers say that is long enough. Claiming the federal judge has turned into a bully with a political bent, they are asking other judges to throw him off the case. Best known as the federal judge who sent Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to prison, the 80-year-old jurist returned to the headlines this spring by saying a new Everglades law heralded by Gov. Jeb Bush was "clearly defective" even before it was signed. Stiffened by a stroke and back trouble but still ramrod straight in person and in deed, the judge insists the federal and state governments are bound by their commitments to him in a 1992 consent decree — no matter what state lawmakers concoct. His dogmatic position comes as no surprise to those who know him. Federico Moreno, who tried cases in front of Hoeveler before joining the Miami federal bench, considers him "a judge's judge." Moreno's thoughts veered to "The Wizard of Oz," saying Hoeveler possessed the attributes treasured by Dorothy's friends: courage, heart and intellect. Kevin Martin, a member of the Federal Communications Commission and former Hoeveler clerk, said the judge "was very sharp, was very deliberative, one of the most fair-minded people I've ever known."  Read more

07-June-03

Sugar Tries Legal Ambush Of Everglades Cleanup Judge
© The Tampa Tribune
The sugar industry's effort to remove the federal judge who has overseen the Everglades restoration effort for 15 years is a clear attempt to stall progress. The growers claim U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler is biased because he publicly questioned the wisdom of an industry-promoted bill that weakens Everglades water quality standards. But Hoeveler only stated the obvious. The measure changes the standards established in his court order and agreed to by the state. Hoeveler has presided over the cleanup effort since former federal attorney Dexter Lehtinen sued the state in 1988 for not enforcing its own water quality laws by allowing tainted runoff to flow into the Everglades. Hoeveler is scheduled Tuesday to assign a special master to the cleanup and has stated his intent to maintain the cleanup standards. The sugar industry is not even a party to the court order. The judge is simply presiding over the consent order to which the state agreed to comply.  Read more

05-June-03

Sugar companies want judge off Glades case
By CRAIG PITTMAN          
© St. Petersburg Times           
Two sugar companies say the federal judge overseeing the cleanup of the Everglades has been talking too much, both in court and to reporters, and should be booted off the case.  In separate motions filed in two federal courts Wednesday, U.S. Sugar and a subsidiary of Flo-Sun Sugar criticized tough-talking U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler, 80, for giving interviews to several newspapers, including the St. Petersburg Times, that show he no longer is impartial.  "The judge has become an advocate," U.S. Sugar vice president Robert Coker said.  The sugar companies also want overturned a pair of blunt orders Hoeveler sent out criticizing a sugar-backed bill that flew through the Legislature and delays the deadline for cleaning up Everglades pollution by a decade.  One order called an emergency hearing because the judge said he'd been reading news accounts about the legislation "with considerable apprehension."  Then, after that hearing, Hoeveler issued an order in which he called the bill "clearly defective" and said Gov. Jeb Bush was being "misled" by people
who did not care about the Everglades.  Bush signed the bill anyway.  Read more 

May 2003

30-May-03

Federal Judge Upholds Florida's Water Protection Plan
Court rejects complaint against state's impaired waters rule.
Department of Environmental Protection
Press Release
TALLAHASSEE - The United States District Court today issued a judgment rejecting a complaint by a handful of litigants that Florida's procedure for identifying polluted lakes and rivers constitutes a change in water quality standards. The decision comes just one week after the Florida First District Court of Appeal upheld the Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) Impaired Waters Rule, which is the basis of Florida's plan to clean up state waters. "Florida's approach is based on sound science and common sense. The Courts
have again determined that the State is on track with a comprehensive plan to clean up pollution in the water," said DEP Secretary David B. Struhs. "We can now focus on the real work at hand: ensuring that our waters are clean - and stay that way."  Read more...

23-May-03

1992 deal on Glades cleanup stands, judge says
By Curtis Morgan
© The Miami Herald
William Hoeveler doesn't know exactly what the Florida Legislature will do to fix a controversial Everglades cleanup bill, but the federal judge said Thursday he does know this: In his Miami court, which set the original schedule for cleaning pollution from the Everglades in a 1992 settlement, the law is already set in stone. ''I'll tell you one thing I'm sure of, we're going according to the old law, the Everglades Forever Act, and we're going to make sure of that,'' the senior U.S. District judge said Thursday. Hoeveler said he is waiting to review changes that emerge after Gov. Jeb Bush signed the measure this week and then asked lawmakers to pass a ''glitch bill'' intended to remove some of the looser language, including references to the removal of a key pollutant ``to the maximum extent practicable.'' Critics, from environmentalists to Florida congressional members, still fear the bill would allow the state to skirt a tough standard for phosphorus and push back a cleanup deadline by at least a decade to 2016. Bush, lawmakers and his top environmental advisors insist the law will strengthen cleanup with an additional $450 million investment under a timeline that reflects technological reality. They also say it won't violate the earlier agreement Florida made in the 1992 settlement of a federal lawsuit that forced the state to reduce farm and urban pollution tainting the Everglades. The matter also has become a potent issue on the presidential campaign trail, with Democratic hopefuls attempting to link the president to the measure by virtue of his relationship with his brother.  Read more...

22-May-03

JUDGE HOEVELER’S ORDER SETTING HEARING DOES NOT FIND THAT AMENDMENTS TO THE EVERGLADES FOREVER ACT ARE IN CONFLICT WITH CONSENT DECREE
Press Release
U.S. Sugar Corporation
Judge Hoeveler’s “ORDER SETTING HEARING” is based upon what the judge has read in the Miami Herald and not on his review of the legislation. The Judge makes clear that the Settlement Agreement and his Consent Decree do not control the State owned parts of the Everglades (Water Conservation Areas 1, 2 and 3) but do control what the parties do in the Everglades National Park. This litigation was filed by the Federal Government to protect the Government’s interests as a  landowner of the National Park and as a manager of the state owned Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge. It was filed under state law and all prior orders of Judge Hoeveler have recognized that the interests of the Federal Government will be determined under state law. The Settlement Agreement established interim and long-term limits for both the National Park and Refuge. These limits have already been achieved even though only one half of the treatment works provided by the Stormwater Treatment Areas have been completed. The proposed phosphorus criterion for the Everglades of 10 parts per billion has been achieved in the Everglades National Park. Implementing the Long-Term Plan of the South Florida Water  Management District as provided in SB 626 would ensure that this compliance will continue into the future. The Long-Term Plan makes further improvements to the Stormwater Treatment Areas to ensure that State Water Quality Standards regarding phosphorus in all parts of the Everglades will be achieved and maintained. Even though Judge Hoeveler’s order says: “I do not propose to deviate from the settlement that now exists..”, the Settlement Agreement and Consent Decree expressly provided that the Settlement Agreement was not self-executing but had to be implemented under State Law. State Agencies were expressly directed to “use the full scope of their authority” to achieve compliance with State Water Quality Standards. As stated by the Court in the Consent Decree and restated by the 11th Circuit on appeal: “Nothing in this Agreement is intended to abrogate the District’s and the DEP’s duties to act in accordance with Florida Law”.. As Judge Hoeveler recognized in his Consent Decree: “...the Agreement imposes a process, rather than a result.”  Read more

10-May-2003

Governor is warned about Glades proposal
By Curtis Morgan
© The Miami Herald
If his message didn't get through the first time, U.S. District Court Judge William Hoeveler delivered it again Friday to Gov. Jeb Bush in the bluntest language: A controversial Everglades bill is ``clearly defective.'' The judge, in an unusually pointed order following a hearing on the measure in his Miami courtroom last week, stopped short of directly urging a veto. But he said his ''fervent hope'' was that Bush would reconsider his stated intention to sign it. ''Apparently, he has been misled by persons who do not have the best interests of the Everglades in mind,'' Hoeveler wrote. Coming days before the governor visits Washington to discuss the measure with congressional critics, the stern words from a venerable federal jurist added considerably to mounting pressure on Bush to kill a bill backed by the sugar industry. Opponents say the bill could push cleanup of farm pollution back a decade or more and threatens the federal share of the $8 billion Everglades restoration effort. Bush, who has defended the measure and said he intends to sign it, issued a brief statement Friday, saying he was reviewing the judge's order.  Read more...

03-May-2003

Glades legislation worries judge
By Curtis Morgan
© The Miami Herald
U.S. District Court Judge William Hoeveler left no doubt Friday that he was troubled by a bill that critics charge could delay the cleanup of the Everglades for at least a decade. He peppered attorneys for the state with questions. And when U.S. Rep. E. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale , told the judge he thought the ''bad bill'' was riddled with ''weasel words,'' Hoeveler quickly concurred: ``Absolutely.'' Hoeveler's authority to do anything about the bill was limited, in part because the bill isn't a law until Bush signs it -- which a spokeswoman said Friday that Bush intends to do soon. But during the four-hour hearing in Miami, the judge stressed he would not budge from a 1992 settlement that he oversaw. That agreement set a deadline for cleaning up polluted farm water flowing into federal parks and Everglades refuges within three years -- 10 to 20 years earlier than the new proposal. ''There's nothing that the state can do to back out of these agreements,'' he said. ``If it doesn't happen in 2006, then we may need slightly more time, but not 10 years.''  Read more...

Honors and recognition

Center for Ethics & Public Service to Recognize Judge Hoeveler With
Award in His Name                                                  
                                                                                                                                   
The University of Miami School of Law Center for Ethics  and Public Service will honor Senior U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler with its First Annual William M. Hoeveler Award for ethics and leadership in the legal profession at a special reception Thursday, April 18, at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Miami. "The Hoeveler Award is being established by the Center to honor devotion to ethics and leadership not only in the bar and bench, but also in the civic community," said Prof. Anthony Alfieri, director of the Center for Ethics and Public Service. Read more...
Copyright  © 2002 University of Miami. All rights reserved.  

Center for Ethics & Public Service:   http://www.law.miami.edu/ceps/

Comments by Judge Hoeveler to Florida Lawyers Assistance 
 "I think one of the basic problems of our profession and all professions is a loss of individual spirituality. This may offend some people, but when I read about the history of this country and the way our Constitution was formed … I think about the reasons why lawyers do what they do. And for a lot of them, it is because they have no compass that is directing them. They have no internal direction. And that's becoming more and more pervasive…. And this is something we never talk about.
Copyright  © 2002 Florida Lawyers Assistance. All rights reserved.

UM honors Judge Hoeveler
The University of Miami School of Law's Center for Ethics and Public Service recently honored U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler with its First Annual William M. Hoeveler Award.  The award was created to honor those who exemplify ethics and leadership in the legal profession. Judge Hoeveler received the inaugural award named in his honor at a special reception at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Miami.  "The Hoeveler Award is being established by the center to honor devotion to ethics and leadership not only in bar and bench, but also in the civic community," said UM Law Professor Anthony Alfieri, director of the law school's Center for Ethics and Public Service. Recently honored with the Miami-Dade County Commission for Ethics and Public Trust's ARETE award, the center also recognizes the contributions of those in the legal profession with its Lawyers in Leadership Award. 
Copyright  © 2002  Florida Bar News  All rights reserved.

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Revised:  01/21/04