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Civil Procedure Keyed to Subrin
Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.
Citation:
555 U.S. 7 (2008)Facts
The Naval training exercises for the last 40 years included the use of modern sonar to detect and track submarines, including active sonar which involved emission and receiving of ultrasonic waves. Plaintiffs opposed this because of the possible harm it may cause to marine mammals. The federal Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 prohibited harassment of marine mammals, but the Secretary of Defense may exempt certain action if he deems that such action is 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, made it mandatory for federal agencies to assess and state the environmental impact of every federal action which has a significant effect on the environment. Under this Act, an agency could be exempt if the agency conducted a smaller-scale environmental assessment (EA), based on which it determined that there was no significant impact of the planned activity on the environment. This type of EA was prepared by Defendant in 2007. Plaintiffs subsequently sued Defendant to stop the naval use of sonar in its training programs. A preliminary injunction in favor of Plaintiffs and against Defendant was granted, and upheld in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
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