When Judge
Marion Jones Callister of the U.S. District Court in Boise took senior status in 1989, Lodge was recommended by Senator
James A. McClure to fill the seat. President
George H. W. Bush nominated Lodge on he was confirmed by a unanimous consent by the Senate on November 21, 1989, and received his commission on He served a term as
chief judge for the District of Idaho from 1992 to 1999, Five years later in 1998, Lodge was also the presiding judge in the case of
Idaho v. Lon T. Horiuchi, which involved the indictment of the
FBI sniper who shot three people at Ruby Ridge, killing one. Lodge cited the
Supremacy Clause of the
U.S. Constitution and dismissed the charges against Horiuchi, which angered many who felt the leniency was unmerited. It was narrowly overturned on appeal (6–5) by the
Ninth Circuit in 2001, but the
Boundary County prosecutor opted not to pursue the charges brought by his predecessor in 1997.
Sami Al-Hussayen In 2004, Lodge presided over the trial of Sami Omar Al-Hussayen—accused of recruiting Islamic fanatics into participating in
Jihad against the United States. On May 13, he ruled to disallow a defense witness to refer to a blood drive that Hussayen had run after
September 11th to help the victims, nor that he had widely condemned the attacks.
Sackett v. EPA In 2019, Lodge ruled that the Sacketts' property included wetlands that were protected by the Clean Water Act. The 9th circuit affirmed Lodge's ruling in 2021, but the 9th circuit was reversed by the Supreme Court in
Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency (2023), which held that only wetlands with a "continuous surface connection" to waters of the United States were protected by the Clean Water Act. ==Personal==