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Supreme Court Split Over Navy’s Sonar Training Case

(From redorbit.com)- The Supreme Court was split on Wednesday over whether President George W. Bush can excuse the Navy from federal environmental laws. This case pits the safety of whales against the Navy’s military exercises. This is the most important environmental case of the current term. The court is evaluating a verdict that required the Navy to take a range of safety measures in order to reduce potential harm to whales and dolphins.

Environmentalists state that the powerful sound waves produced in sonar training can hurt or even destroy endangered whales. The waves could even hinder the marine mammals’ dive patterns.

Throughout the debates, the conservative justices thought that the judges in the case should have listened and accommodated the decisions of the Navy and Bush, and let the submarine-hunting exercises continue.

Following a judge’s decision to issue a preliminary injunction imposing a number of limits on the Navy, Bush stepped in. He noted that the national security obligations of the exercises should exempt the Navy from the ecological regulations at the center of the legal dispute.

 

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