Winter V. Natural Resources Defense Council - Background and Procedural History

Background and Procedural History

The Navy scheduled 14 training exercises through January 2009 off the coast of southern California. These exercises involve the use of “mid-frequency active sonar” to detect enemy submarines. Environmentalists claim that the high decibel levels used harm whales, causing beach strandings. In February 2007, however, the Navy issued an environmental impact assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), concluding that the use of mid-frequency active sonar during the exercises would cause minimal harm to marine mammals.

Petitioners, mostly environmental groups, sought declaratory and injunctive relief against the exercises, on the ground that they violated NEPA, plus other environmental laws not material to the Supreme Court decision. The district court granted a preliminary injunction barring conduct of the exercises. On remand from the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the district court modified the preliminary injunction to allow the Navy to use the sonar if it used mitigation measures. On the Navy’s second appeal, challenging two of the mitigation measures, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the modified injunction, noting that plaintiffs (petitioners in the Supreme Court) had carried their burden of showing a “possibility” of irreparable injury and that the balance of hardships weighed in favor of plaintiffs.

Read more about this topic:  Winter V. Natural Resources Defense Council

Famous quotes containing the words background and, background and/or history:

    I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.
    Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)

    In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.
    Emma Goldman (1869–1940)

    The history of his present majesty, is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations ... all of which have in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world, for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.
    Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)