Segmentation of Environmental Review: Why Defenders of Wildlife v. U.S. Navy Threatens the Effectiveness of NEPA and the ESA

Abstract

In Defenders of Wildlife v. United States Department of the Navy, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that the environmental review conducted by the Navy and the National Marine and Fishery Service regarding the proposed construction and operation of a warfare training range was in compliance with federal law. In particular, the court found that segmentation of review at its final stages did not violate the National Environmental Policy Act or the Endangered Species Act. This Comment addresses the danger of allowing a technicality to authorize segmentation of environmental review, and its potential negative impacts on endangered species, such as the North Atlantic right whale. The Eleventh Circuit could have followed the trends of other circuit courts, such as the Second and Ninth Circuits, to invalidate the Navy’s and the NMFS’s environmental review.