Federalist society members continue to survive following their ritual suicide be devouring polar bear hearts so I assume this was a Bush appointee who is concerned about fellow Bush appointees dying for lack of bear hearts.

As we've found, with this Administration it's one battle to get them to make a determination, it's an entirely different war to get them to actually enforce it.

Does anyone really expect Bush to abide by the May 15 deadline? They'll let it pass, and when the judge asks why the delay, they'll ask for more time to explain the delay, and when that time passes, they'll have some new insane legal argument which will take time to rule on...

It wouldn't be surprising to see Bush and his acolytes concoct some bizarre "inherent powers" rationale, claiming that the President has the ability to override and ignore these environmental laws by saying he believes they somehow harm national security. It's been done repeatedly with regards to eavesdropping on communications, detention of "suspected terrorists", etc. Why would anything be different now?

It isn't too cynical to believe the Bushies are actually talking about doing this -- just look at the claims described earlier today about Congress having NO oversight powers concerning Cheney's office.

I'm still waiting with a combination of curiosity and dread as the November election approaches, with the prospect of a Democratic president taking office next year. Who's to say that the current administration won't claim that it's just TOO DARN DANGEROUS to leave office as scheduled in January, so we're just going to have to suspend elections for a while. Sorry if that sounds paranoid, but is such a scenario so far-fetched, based on all the other parts of our Constitution that have been ignored by this President?

"a federal judge ruled that all this federal foot-dragging is illegal, ordering the Bush administration to make a decision about the bears' status by May 15 at the latest."

Or else...WHAT exactly? Will the federal judge hold our federal government in contempt of court?

Sound like a judge urinating in the wind to me.

The "judgment" holds no water because there are no (as far as I can see) any penalties if the Bush Administration does NOT follow what this judge has ruled.