[CINC] Navy Sonar Decision

[Ron Dreher]

Supreme Court Sides With Navy In Case Over Sonar Use, Whales 

Associated Press

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WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court is lifting restrictions on the Navy's use of
sonar in training exercises off the California coast, a defeat for
environmental groups who say the sonar can harm whales.

[Image]Getty Images 

An endangered blue whale spouts near Long Beach, Calif.

The court, in its first decision of the term, voted 5-4 that the Navy needs
to conduct realistic training exercises to respond to potential threats by
enemy submarines.

Environmental groups persuaded lower federal courts in California to impose
restrictions on sonar use in submarine-hunting exercises to protect whales
and other marine mammals.

The Bush administration argued that there is little evidence of harm to
marine life in more than 40 years of exercises off the California coast.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, which was joined by
Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

The court did not deal with the merits of the claims put forward by the
environmental groups. It said, rather, that federal courts abused their
discretion by ordering the Navy to limit sonar use in some cases and to turn
it off altogether in others.

 

 

 

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