Civil Procedure Keyed to Yeazell
Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.
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The Naval training exercises for the last 40 years include the use of modern sonar to detect and track submarines, including active sonar which involves emission and receiving of ultrasonic waves. The Natural Resources Defense Council (the Council) (P) opposes this because of the possible harm it may cause to marine mammals, including hearing loss, decompression sickness and major behavioral changes. The federal Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 prohibits harassment of marine mammals, but such actions may be exempted by the Secretary of Defense if he feels they are necessary in the interests of national defense. Such an exemption had been granted for naval training using sonar. Another federal act, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, makes it mandatory for federal agencies to assess and state the environmental impact of every federal action which has a significant effect on the environment. The exception is if the agency conducts a smaller-scale environmental assessment (EA), based on which it determines that there is no significant impact of the planned activity on the environment. This type of EA was prepared by the Navy in 2007. This was followed by the Council (P) suing the Navy (D) to stop the naval use of sonar in its training programs. The preliminary injunction in favor of the Council (P) and against the Navy (D) was granted, and upheld in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
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