In April, 1974 Judge Lord came to a verdict. He shut down Reserve Mining Company. 3,000 people lost their jobs, causing the Eighth Circuit for the Court of Appeals to remove him from the case, saying that he had "exhibited a gross bias toward the mining company." The case was reassigned to a different court in 1976. Judge Edward Devitt presided. He allowed Reserve Mining Company to reopen. Devitt gave them a deadline for when they had to have an on-land disposal site at Mile Post 7. They complied.
“This court cannot honor profit over human life.” - Judge Lord, MILES LORD: A WARRIOR FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE/Minnesota Trial, 2009
"Lord seems to have shed the robe of a judge and to have assumed the mantle of the advocate." - Court of Appeals on the decision to remove Judge Lord, MILES LORD: A WARRIOR FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE/Minnesota Trial, 2009
Letters to the Editor Expressing Rage about Judge Lord's Removal