Legal News

L.A. judge says White House can't override her order

By Jason Siegel

The Navy must follow environmental laws, despite President Bush's attempt to exempt them, a Los Angeles judge ruled yesterday.

U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper ruled last month that the Navy's plan to limit the harm done to whales and other marine animals from sonar exposure was inadequate. She issued a preliminary injunction creating a 12 nautical mile no-sonar zone off Southern California.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals were expected to rule on the Navy's practice last month, but sent it back to Cooper when President Bush exempted the Navy from two major environmental laws, overriding Cooper's ruling, with government filings that claimed restrictions on the sonar training "profoundly interferes with the Navy's global management of U.S. strategic forces, its ability to conduct warfare operations, and ultimately places the lives of American sailors and Marines at risk."

Cooper wrote yesterday that the President's exemption raised significant constitutional concerns - though a decision on its constitutionality was unnecessary to reinstate the injunction and order the Navy to comply with the environmental laws.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on February 05, 2008 (boomark / email).