The Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.; the Humane Society of the United States; the Cetacean Society International; the League for Coastal Protection; the Ocean Futures Society; and Jean-Michel Cousteau filed suit in federal district court to obtain a preliminary injunction against federal officials to prevent the U.S. Navy’s peacetime use of a low-frequency sonar system for training, testing, and routine operations. This new technology, Low Frequency Active Sonar (LFA), sends out intense sonar pulses at low frequencies that travel hundreds of miles in order to timely detect increasingly quiet enemy submarines. The complaint alleges that the use of LFA is a violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the ESA, the NEPA, and the Administrative Procedures Act. The complaint claims that these violations will cause irreparable injury to sea creatures, many of them rare and endangered, including whales, dolphins, seals, sea turtles, and salmon.

The Navy argues that enjoining the peacetime use of LFA sonar would harm national security, even though the Navy would still be free to use it during wartime or periods of heightened threat because training and testing are necessary for military readiness.

Do the groups and Mr. Cousteau have standing to challenge the Navy’s work? Can the Navy’s work be enjoined? What should the court decide and why? [Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v Evans, 232 F. Supp. 2d 1003 (N.D. Cal. 2002)]