A U.S. Court of Appeals yesterday granted the Department of Defense’s motion to stay the 30-day preliminary injunction issued by a federal court on the military’s live exercises on Farallon de Medinilla.
“This decision allows the Navy to resume training on the island pending further court action,” the Guam-based Commander of the U.S. Naval Forces Marianas Public Affairs Office said.
The appellate court ruling will allow the armed forces to continue its training on Farallon de Medinilla, according to Lt. Monica Richardson, spokeswoman of the U.S. Naval Forces Marianas.
Richardson told Variety yesterday that the Washington, D.C.-based Court of Appeals granted the Navy’s motion to stay the April 30 injunction issued by Judge Emmet G. Sullivan.
“We got that message about 8 this morning (Wednesday),” Richardson said.
Sullivan’s 30-day preliminary injunction last month also ordered Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and acting Secretary of the Navy Robert B. Pirie Jr. to comply with the permitting requirement imposed by the Administrative Procedures Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1918.
“The (Court of Appeals) said we can go ahead with our training on Farallon de Medinilla until the judge makes a decision on our (first) appeal,” Richardson said.
Richardson, however, said they had not been briefed on the result of the May 10 status hearing set by Sullivan on whether the Pentagon had complied with the requirements set by the treaty and other procedures indicated in the April 30 ruling.
Richardson said they were preparing the schedules for the live fire exercises. She said when Sullivan issued his April 30 ruling, the training was canceled.
CNMI government officials and businesses yesterday welcomed the court’s order, citing its benefits to the local economy and to national security.
Senate President Paul A. Manglona, R-Rota, said military exercises and port calls pump money into various businesses which, in turn, benefit the economies of the CNMI and Guam.
Mike Schadeck, chairman of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce armed forces committee, said the business group “strongly welcomes” the court decision, in light of the current economic condition of the islands.
Military presence benefits businesses, he said.
“This is great. When a judge issued a 30-day halt to the military exercises, the Chamber wrote to the Navy, to see if there’s something we can do. Now that’s been addressed,” said Schadeck.
In a statement to Variety, Congressman Robert Underwood said the court ruling overturning the injunction is good news, but a legislative remedy is still needed.
“I fully expect that the original plaintiffs, in turn, will start working on an appeal of this decision, so it still leaves the issue up in the air—that’s why it needs to be fixed in legislation,” Underwood, D-Guam, said.
He said a permanent closure of the military’s only live fire bombing range in the Western Pacific would negatively affect Guam and the CNMI.
“Absent a resolution, we would be far less attractive for training purposes, and over all, that might affect the presence of the military on Guam on a long term basis,” he said.
Underwood supports a provision in the U.S. House version of the fiscal year 2003 Defense Authorization Bill which allows the interior secretary to issue permits to the Navy under the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act for the taking of birds during training.
However, the U.S. Senate version does not include a similar provision.
“Although I have communicated with senators, and I will do so formally, to urge them to include the FDM provision in their Defense Authorization Bill, I don’t think they will,” he said. “This means that it will be an item to be settled in conference, and I fully expect to be a member of the House conference team. I’ll be able to speak on behalf of the provision when the time comes.”
Farallon de Medinilla has been the military’s training target for bombs, missiles and naval gunfire for more than 30 years now. It is the only live fire training range in the Western Pacific and hence “critical” to the training of the nation’s forward-deployed naval forces.
In Dec. 2000, the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the military from using Farallon de Medinilla.
