Supreme Court Chooses Navy Training over Risk to Whales

The U.S. Supreme Court, ruling that national security trumps environmental rules, lifted restrictions on the Navy's use of sonar during training exercises off the coast of Southern California.

The environmental interests ``are plainly outweighed by the Navy's need to conduct realistic training exercises to ensure that it is able to neutralize the threat posed by enemy submarines,'' Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.

The case tested the power of the White House and the military to skirt federal environmental regulations in the name of national security. The Bush administration argued that courts should be deferential when the president concludes that a military exercise is essential for the country's safety.

Two justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter, dissented, while two others, Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens, agreed with Roberts in part.

The ruling applies to the last of 14 training exercises designed to prepare naval strike groups for deployment in the western Pacific and Middle East.

Environmental groups led by the Natural Resources Defense Council sought to limit the Navy's use of mid-frequency active sonar, also known as MFA sonar, which ships use to detect submarines. The environmentalists said MFA sonar has killed and injured beaked whales and other marine mammals.

Harmful Actions

U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper limited the Navy's use of MFA sonar, pointing to the National Environmental Policy Act's requirement that government agencies prepare an environmental impact statement before taking harmful actions.

Cooper said President George W. Bush's Council on Environmental Quality had improperly cited ``emergency circumstances'' as a basis for exempting the Navy from that requirement.

Trade groups representing the forest-products, pesticide, agricultural and home-building industries supported the Bush administration in the case.

Cooper's order required the Navy to take a number of steps, including shutting down MFA sonar when marine mammals are spotted within 2,200 yards and reducing sonar power by 75 percent in the presence of a water condition known as ``surface ducting.''

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Cooper's order, though it also issued a stay that temporarily relaxed the restrictions.

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At what point does a healthy ecosystem become part of national security, or should we just be concerned with short-term national security? And does our security trump the security of whales because they don't have a voice?