More Lunatic Bus Drivers

[David Morris]

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/supreme-court-n.html

"The balance of equities and the public interest ... tip strongly in
favor of the Navy," wrote Chief Justice John Roberts in the majority
opinion. "The Navy's need to conduct realistic training with active
sonar to respond to the threat posed by enemy submarines plainly
outweighs the interests advanced by the plaintiffs."

[...]

Formally dissenting from the ruling were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg
and David Souter.

All the Navy had to do, they argued, is draft an environmental impact
statement, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act — but
the Navy didn't bother, and then called in the President to exempt
them from the law, even though he had no legal standing to do so.

Even if the Navy wouldn't admit in court to hurting whales, wrote
Ginsburg and Souter, their own Environmental Assessment — a
less-formal version of an environmental impact statement — predicted
that sonar training exercises would drive entire whale populations
mad.