Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council

Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 8, 2008 Decided November 12, 2008
Full case name	Donald C. Winter, Secretary of the Navy, et al., Petitioners v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., et al.
Docket no.	07-1239
Citations	555 U.S. 7 (more) 129 S. Ct. 365; 172 L. Ed. 2d 249; 2008 U.S. LEXIS 8343
Case history
Prior	Nat. Res. Def. Council, Inc. v. Winter, 530 F. Supp. 2d 1110 (C.D. Cal. 2008); affirmed, 518 F.3d 658 (9th Cir. 2008); cert. granted, 554 U.S. 916 (2008).
Holding
Military preparedness outweighs environmental concerns, as Navy needs to train its crews to detect modern, silent submarines, and it cannot be forced to turn off its sonar when whales are spotted nearby.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Antonin Scalia Anthony Kennedy · David Souter Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg Stephen Breyer · Samuel Alito
Case opinions
Majority	Roberts, joined by Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Alito
Concur/dissent	Breyer, joined by Stevens (Part I)
Dissent	Ginsburg, joined by Souter

Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 555 U.S. 7 (2008), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court concerning whether federal law restricted the United States Navy's ability to use sonar during drills given the possibility of a harmful effect on marine mammals such as whales.^[1][2]

In balancing military preparedness against environmental concerns, the majority came down solidly on the side of national security. Chief Justice Roberts wrote in his opinion, "the most serious possible injury would be harm to an unknown number of marine mammals that they study and observe". By contrast, he continued, "forcing the Navy to deploy an inadequately trained antisubmarine force jeopardizes the safety of the fleet".^[3]