Kate, you're absolutely right that I should have mentioned this. My only excuse is the dizzying excitement of being on vacation in Cape Cod when the ruling was issued (whale central, actually...so I guess that's not much of an excuse).
At any rate, there's no question the ruling was a disappointment--especially considering the strongly reasoned opinion by federal Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, who enjoined the Navy's southern California sonar exercises. But the good news is that the ruling's only a temporary setback. Not to get too lawyerly on Switchboard readers, but what happened was the Court of Appeals entered a temporary stay of Judge Cooper's preliminary injunction while it reviews the merits of her ruling. In other words, the Court of Appeals held wide open the possibility that it will reinstate Judge Cooper's injunction. What's more, it ordered fast-track consideration of the appeal, which will be heard by a different panel of judges.
In the words of Joel Reynolds, who is leading our fight: "This is a short-term stay to allow the court to review the merits in full," said Joel Reynolds, senior attorney for the plaintiffs. "The court will hear the matter on a highly expedited basis, and we look forward to that review."
Couldn't of said it better myself.
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