The article informs that in U.S. President George W. Bush's first term, more than a third of his nominees for federal appeals courts and the Court of Federal Claims had worked as energy-industry lawyers and lobbyists. This time around, the National Association of Manufacturers has launched a multi-million-dollar campaign to boost the president's picks--seven of whom, including William Myers, were rejected last term as too extreme. Vermont Law School professor Patrick Parenteau foresees "very bleak times" ahead. Without a judicial commitment to environmental law, he says, deadlines don't get met, species don't get listed, environmental impact statements don't get written, wetlands don't get saved. The nonpartisan Environmental Law Institute found that, in cases dealing with the National Environmental Policy Act, Bush's first-term appointments to federal courts ruled against environmental challenges 83 percent of the time. It is reported that some Bush appointees and nominees espouse an extreme philosophy known as New Federalism, which rejects the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause as the basis of federal environmental law.