What lawyer would take this case with a straight face? How would you get depositions from witnesses? And would pumping the courtroom full of seawater be a requirement under the Americans with Disabilities Act? But what if the dolphin is not American?
But I thought lawyers were sharks…
from http://www.rainbowfriends.org/
Rainbow Friends Animal Sanctuary is located on the Island of Hawai’i. The Sanctuary’s mission is to help, heal, and find good homes for abused, neglected, or otherwise homeless animals. The Sanctuary also tries to reunite lost animals with their human companions. The Sanctuary also offers an opportunity for people to interact with wonderful animals through volunteering and participating in Sanctuary programs.
The Cetacean Litigation is a suit filed in Federal Court by the Cetacean Community to prevent President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld from deploying Low Frequency Active Sonar without adequate environmental analysis of the sonar’s effects. This suit is an educational project of Rainbow Friends Animal Sanctuary.
So the suit was filed for the purpose of being an educational project? The lawyer knew there was no real case but filed it anyway, forcing tax dollars to be spent defening it, to be “educational”?
I hope that there are some highly educational sanctions imposed upon him…
I’m not up on the Endangered Species Act, but is there not a way to sue for its enforcement without doing stupid shit like suing on behalf of Flipper?
Look for the upcoming major motion picture “(You’re) Free (To File A Lawsuit On Behalf Of) Willy.”
That’s what I thought. Talk about frivolous lawsuits.
How does a dolphin express his desire for new counsel?
He flippers off the old one, and asks for one that’s fit for his porpoise.
Flippant (ha!) comments aside, there is a real cause here: newer Navy sonar systems can and do cause damge to dolphins, small whales, etc. The problem for the activists is that you need to establish standing in order to file a lawsuit. Since the system doesn’t harm the activists, except indirectly, they attempted to use an extremely creative approach to the standing issue.
IOW, it’s not quite as ludicrous as it sounds.
I have no doubt that sea mammals are harmed by this system. Heck, I live in the former home state of Project ELF, I heard about this sort of thing with a certain regularity. My point is still that there have been lawsuits already seeking enforcement of the Endagered Species Act (spotted owls, IIRC was one) without filing a suit that was doomed before it got started.
And people wonder why the animal rights movement is looked at as a haven for nutjobs.
I’m sorry, but it is ludicrous, because it’s a waste of time and resources. It was a futile gesture, doomed to failure. The activists would have done themselves a better service by using the time and money they spent filing the lawsuit and using it to publicize their cause in a more temperate, serious manner.
This way, they are tying up the court’s time and making themselves a laughingstock. IMHO, they did not serve their cause well.
Ivylass said: “This way, they are tying up the court’s time and making themselves a laughingstock. IMHO, they did not serve their cause well.”
I agree. I have a feeling the Rainbow Friends conceived the idea while under the influence of some of Hawaii’s most notorious flora. 
Ah, pronoun trouble. (Shoot me now! Shoot me now!)
I was unclear. I did not mean that the suit itself was not ludicrous, I meant that the issue motivating the activist was not ludicrous. Logical reasons can be expressed in ludicrous actions, and I think that’s the case here.
There is a debate within the marine biology community about damage to cetaceans by the use of sonar technologies. Paul Jepson of the Institute of Zoology in London, Ken Balcomb of Earthwatch (near bottom of page), John Hildebrand of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and others have all expressed concern or brought out evidence of strandings or decompression illness of cetaceans in shallow waters associated with use of SURTASS systems. It’s a legit issue.
Fine. Then deal with the problem legitimately. Present studies and information to the Navy. Phone your Congressman. Be calm about it. How is anyone going to take you seriously if you walk into court, claiming dolphins and whales are your clients?
From the OP’s link:
So sayeth the Ninth Circus. What is Judge William A. Fletcher smoking, and where can I get some? :dubious:
Well, I am not personally walking into courts claiming anything. I try to avoid courts as a general rule, as a matter of fact.
This can’t have been the first time you’ve seen an evident nutjob latch on to a cause that has merit, though, can it? Nobody here has yet suggested that the plaintiff isn’t worthy of a chuckle.
But the guy did accomplish something. We are talking about the issue, and this story got carried on national news. For all we know he wanted to get his case thrown out of court specifically to garner this type of attention. The more outrageous or ludicrous the approach, the more likely he was to get that attention. Kind of like those guys in Batman costumes climbing Buckingham Palace. Any press is good press, according to the old adage.
Filed in name of the cetacean community? Bah.
I was hoping the case would be captioned,
“Porpoises 1 through 204,000,000 v. Bush”.