FINALLY!!!!!

Today SCOTUS told the environmentalists to pound sand in a rat hole… πŸ™‚

The Supreme Court on Wednesday lifted restrictions on the Navy’s use of sonar in training exercises off the California coast, a defeat for environmental groups who say the sonar can harm whales.

The court, in its first decision of the term, voted 5-4 that the Navy needs to conduct realistic training exercises to respond to potential threats by enemy submarines. Environmental groups had persuaded lower federal courts in California to impose restrictions on sonar use in submarine-hunting exercises to protect whales and other marine mammals.

The Bush administration argued that there is little evidence of harm to marine life in more than 40 years of exercises off the California coast.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, which was joined by Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

The court did not deal with the merits of the claims put forward by the environmental groups. It said, rather, that federal courts abused their discretion by ordering the Navy to limit sonar use in some cases and to turn it off altogether in others.

And SCOTUS put the Ninth Circus in their place too πŸ™‚

Roberts pointed out that the federal appeals court decision restricting the Navy’s sonar training acknowledged that the record contained no evidence marine mammals had been harmed.

The overall public interest tips “strongly in favor of the Navy,” Roberts wrote.

Now we can at least train our folks in how to operate their systems BEFORE they get to an operational theater where they need to be proficient to find subs and mines, rather than on the job training at the last minute…

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