Jon Queally at Common Dreams writes—'Victory for Our Oceans': US Court Upholds Ruling on Vast Marine Monument Established by Obama. You can read the decision here:
Defenders of ocean habitats celebrated Friday after a federal court upheld a lower court ruling defending the right of the U.S. executive branch to set aside marine areas as national monuments.
Citing the authority found under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to establish marine national monuments, the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia sided against a lawsuit brought by large fishing industry interests that challenged President Barack Obama's designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which encompasses 4,913 square miles of the Atlantic Ocean off the nation's northeast coast, as a protected area.
Conservation groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF)—which had intervened in the case—applauded the court's ruling.
"Today's decision is a clear victory for our oceans and for the Atlantic's only marine national monument," said Peter Shelley, Senior Counsel at CLF. "This decision upholds protections for one of the most fragile and scientifically important areas in the North Atlantic from destructive activities like oil drilling and industrial fishing. Safeguarding the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts ensures that we are leaving a proud legacy for the people of New England."
"Like one of America's very first national monuments, the Grand Canyon, the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts is a natural treasure," Desormaeu said in a statement. "It provides habitat for a wide range of species, from endangered whales to Atlantic puffins to centuries-old deep-sea corals."
The court's decision, she added, "affirms that presidents have the authority to protect marine areas like this for the benefit of current and future generations. Preserving ocean areas like this one will be absolutely key to ensuring the resilience of our oceans in a changing climate."
Three other cases having to do with national monuments are working their way through the federal courts. One of those, Natural Resources Defense Council v. Trump is headed for consideration by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In late September, Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed the White House’s contention that the NRDC and other organizations that filed the suit have no standing.
The question at issue in that case is whether the Antiquities Act gives presidents the power to create monuments and reduce them. Donald Trump sharply cut the acreage of two national monuments in Utah—Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. President Obama created the former and increased the acreage of the latter on December 28, 2016. The plaintiffs argue that only Congress has the authority to reduce the size of national monuments.
HIGH IMPACT STORIES
QUOTATION
“Do you know that even when you look at a tree and say, “That is an oak tree,” or “that is a banyan tree,” the naming of the tree, which is botanical knowledge, has so conditioned your mind that the word comes between you and actually seeing the tree? To come in contact with the tree you have to put your hand on it and the word will not help you to touch it.”
~~Jiddu Krishnamurti, Freedom from the Known (2009)
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2002—800,000 jobless workers to lose benefits:
MERRY CHRISTMAS!, say the good Christians at the White House:
Daschle nails this one:
The House Republican leadership turned their backs on these families and refused to act, and the (Bush) administration chose not to intervene. This inaction by Republicans was unconscionable then, and it is even more so now.
So how does the GOP respond to Daschle's dead on criticism?
The White House and Republican leaders had no immediate response to the statement.
Ho ho ho!
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Make Rudy Colludy a Senate impeachment trial witness. Holiday party conversation starter: Hallmark Xmas movies are fascist propaganda. Mulvaney's dual jobs are part of Trump's long-running Ukraine scheme. Loony Michelle Fiore is back in the news.