Whales and War Games

“In this case, however, the proper determination of where the public interest lies does not strike us as a close question.” So wrote John Roberts, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice, in his majority (5-4) ruling against restrictions on the Navy’s use of sonar in submarine training exercises to safeguard whales and other marine mammals from injury, disruption in migration or breeding, stranding or even death. What Roberts’ didn’t consider in his assessment of “public interest” were either the marine mammals’ interests, or those of land-dwelling mammals, such as humans, in protecting those very interests. Some Court watchers didn’t see the decision as seminal, but rather embodying a by-now familiar deference to military interests. Some environmentalists didn’t see the ruling as a total loss, either. They said the Navy had agreed to abide by certain other restrictions during training sessions. Nonetheless, it’s hard not to be struck by this. Whatever interests whales or other marine mammals may have, Roberts wrote, “are outweighed by the public interest [that again – my insertion] and the Navy’s interest in effective, realistic training of its sailors.”