## Facts

- The U.S. Navy developed the Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active Sonar (SURTASS LFAS) to detect submarines using low-frequency active sonar pulses and passive hydrophones.
- An attorney filed suit in the name of “the Cetacean Community,” purportedly representing the world’s whales, dolphins, and porpoises.
- The complaint alleged the sonar causes physical injury and disrupts biologically important behaviors such as feeding and mating.
- The suit sought declaratory and injunctive relief, alleging actual or threatened violations of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
- The district court dismissed the action for lack of standing.

## Issues

1. Whether cetaceans may sue in their own name under the ESA, MMPA, NEPA, or APA.
2. Whether the “Cetacean Community” may assert associational standing on behalf of cetaceans as its members.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit affirmed dismissal.
- The court held cetaceans lack statutory standing to sue under the ESA, MMPA, NEPA, or APA.
- The court also held the “Cetacean Community” lacked associational standing because its alleged members had no standing in their own right.

## Legal Principles

- Statutory standing depends on whether Congress authorized the plaintiff class to sue; a claimant’s alleged injury does not alone establish standing under a statute.
- Courts require a clear congressional statement before recognizing animals as authorized plaintiffs under federal statutes.
- The ESA’s and APA’s definitions of “person” do not include animals, supporting the conclusion that these statutes protect animals without making them eligible to sue.
- Associational standing fails where the association’s members lack standing to sue individually under the relevant statutes.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit held that, absent explicit congressional authorization, cetaceans cannot bring suit in their own name under the ESA, MMPA, NEPA, or APA, and an attorney-created “community” cannot obtain representational standing when its purported members have no statutory standing.


Cetacean Cmty. v. Bush, 386 F.3d 1169 (9th Cir. 2004)