Sonar case highlights district courts’ equitable power to weigh competing interests Commentary
Sonar case highlights district courts’ equitable power to weigh competing interests
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Joel Reynolds [Director of Urban Program, Natural Resources Defense Council]: "In early October, NRDC argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that executive agencies cannot trump the factual findings of federal district courts and that the district court in our case properly balanced the real harms to whales and other marine mammals from sonar against the alleged harms to the U.S. Navy's training. As for the Executive Branch's overreaching, NRDC strongly believes, and argued before the Court, that the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) exceeded its authority in exempting the Navy from the National Environmental Policy Act's (NEPA) substantive requirements. Never before has CEQ found that a district court's injunction can create emergency circumstances that warrant noncompliance with NEPA. The White House's action created a classic conflict between the Executive and Judicial branches of our government, with the Navy endorsing the constitutionally suspect proposition that an executive branch agency can act as a court of errors, reviewing and intervening in a district court's findings. Several Justices asked Solicitor General Garre, arguing on behalf of the Navy, whether CEQ has the statutory authority to exempt the Navy from complying with NEPA. In the past, the Supreme Court has consistently rejected the Executive Branch's attempts to revise or set aside federal court holdings, doing so just three years after our Nation's founding in the famous Hayburn's Case.

NRDC also argued that the evidentiary record fully supports the district court's finding that the Navy was not harmed by the court's order because the Navy could still achieve its training goals while implementing common-sense measures that protect marine mammals. The Justices asked many questions on this point, concerned that the district court may have improperly weighed the competing interests of national security and protection of our environment. The Supreme Court has consistently upheld federal courts' equitable powers to weigh such competing interests, and, if the Supreme Court follows its precedent, we expect to prevail. But whatever the outcome, NRDC will continue our efforts, both here in the United States and around the world, to protect these magnificent marine animals from the needless infliction of harm in the oceans."

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