Judge Molloy to step aside in 2011

From the largest environmental crime

trial in U.S. history to Forest Service logging projects to the

status of gray wolves, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy’s

decisions have certainly impacted Libby and Troy residents.

Molloy, 64, recently announced plans to

take “senior status” in August – a term used in his profession as

retiring from active service. Senior judges are periodically

invited to hear cases heard by appeal courts.

U.S. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.)

announced the formation of a search committee to find Molloy’s

replacement. A committee made up of attorneys Milton Datsopoulos of

Missoula, James Goetz of Bozeman, Karla Gray, former state Supreme

Court chief justice, Candace Fetscher of Missoula and Martha Sheehy

of Billings will recommend a candidate to Baucus, who will then in

turn make a nomination to President Barack Obama.

Molloy has been at the center of some

of the most controversial court rulings in state history. Among

those were placing wolves in Montana and Idaho back on the

endangered species list, halting various logging sales, stopping

Forest Service plans to drop retardant on fires and blocking

Montana and other states from opting out of federal gun laws.

All of those decisions have generated

plenty of interest in Lincoln County. But one of the

highest-profile cases affecting locals involved the W.R. Grace

environmental crime trial. The company and three of its executives

were accused of allowing workers and residents to be exposed to

asbestos while operating a vermiculite mine near Libby. The trial

lasted several weeks and ended with those facing charges being

acquitted.

Molloy went from working as a Billings

attorney to sitting on the district court bench in Missoula for 14

years.

The District of Montana includes three

active judges. For a period of time, Molloy served as the chief

judge of the district.