The video quickly went “viral” and it shocked the Nation. In it a high-ranking political appointee of the Obama Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) instructs federal employees on how to do their jobs.

I was in a meeting once and I gave an analogy to my staff about my philosophy of enforcement…. It was kind of like how the Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw, and they would crucify them. And then that town was really easy to manage for the next few years.

Al Armendariz, Administrator for the EPA's South Central Region (Region 6).

One might have expected Armendariz to use a term from the popular culture, “to go Medieval,” which, says an on-line “Urban Dictionary,” means “to become savagely violent without restraint.” Instead, he named a killing so slow, painful, gruesome, and humiliating that Cicero called it "a most cruel and disgusting punishment," which "should be far removed, not only from a Roman citizen’s body, but [also] from his mind, his eyes, [and] his ears.”

Not only was this shameful thing in Armendariz’s mind, eyes, and ears, it was on the tip of his tongue and it was not the first time that he uttered it. There is little doubt that his boss, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, knew his views; she appointed him. Nor is there any question that Attorney General Eric Holder and his legion of U.S. Department of Justice attorneys understood his enforcement philosophy; after all, when Armendariz decided to “crucify” a company, its officials, or employees, Holder’s minions took his case to court!

For example, Armendariz, the EPA, and Holder’s lawyers attempted to “crucify” Range Resources by issuing an “emergency order” charging that its “fracking” polluted ground water in Texas, but that charge was bogus. After fact-filled blow back from Range Resources, the Texas Railroad Commission, and a federal judge, the EPA withdrew its order; the case was dismissed!

Armendariz and his anti-fracking zealotry (he showed the propaganda film Gasland, on which he collaborated, to his officials) may be gone; but his opposition to carbon-based energy, his Roman Empire enforcement strategy, and his loathing of the private sector remain.

Armendariz’s crude analogy, the silence from EPA Headquarters and the White House, and the speed with which environmental activists sprang to his defense on-line, on the news, and elsewhere may have shocked the American people, but none of it surprises MSLF.

In 1941, U.S. Attorney General Robert H. Jackson—later justice of the Supreme Court—argued that a federal “prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America,” therefore the post requires “fair play and decency.” Because, when “the government technically loses its case, it has really won if justice has been done.”

For 35 years, MSLF has represented individuals, businesses, and rural communities that have found themselves in federal crosshairs, the targets of autocratic, arrogant, and audacious bureaucrats and the zealous lawyers who represent them. In MSLF’s experience, “fair play,” “decency,” and a pursuit of “justice,” are lacking. Instead, MSLF’s clients face endless, relentless, aggressive “win-at-all-costs” litigation. Victory, not justice is the goal.

• A family that sought to protect its property from trespassers was sued by the National Park Service, served process by an aggressive SWAT team, and subjected to official attempts to besmirch their character;

• A man accused of harming “wetlands” (like the Sackett family), was threatened with criminal charges when he tried to exercise his rights;

• A man charged with violating the Endangered Species Act suffered eight years of federal prosecution with federal lawyers dreaming up new and ridiculous arguments at each stage of the proceedings;

• A woman who sought to use her property was subjected to relentless citations and harassment; then, when she sued, federal lawyers urged a ruling to win that will open the floodgates to nationwide litigation;

• A man charged with a felony by the U.S. Forest Service was told that his was a “strict liability crime” and that the federal lawyers need not prove criminal intent (like the Gibson [Guitar] USA situation);

• Two men, in separate cases, who won huge victories over illegal acts by federal officials and sought big Equal Access to Justice Act awards received, not payment, but a punitive attack by federal lawyers; and

• A man who charged federal employees with fraud won, not kudos, but a federal case against aggressive federal lawyers who defended the misconduct without a required investigation and disclosure to a judge!

Thank you for your support of MSLF’s defense of constitutional liberties and the rule of law and MSLF’s vital efforts to ensure that, when the federal government exercises its power to prosecute citizens, the result is justice!