Earle L. Reynolds v. United States

Appellant is an anthropologist who spent several years in the early 1950’s studying the effects of radiation on the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb blasts. In 1958 the Atomic Energy Commission was conducting a series of nuclear tests at the Eniwetok Proving Grounds in the Pacific. In connection with these tests the Commission on April 11, 1958, promulgated a regulation barring United States citizens from entering a 390,000 square mile “Danger Area” surrounding the proving grounds, except with the express approval of appropriate officials. This regulation is set out in the footnotes.

It was purportedly issued under and authorized by § 161 (i) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, 42 U.S.C.A. § 2201 (i), which provides:

Section 223 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, 42 U.S.C.A. § 2273 , provides:

Appellant testified that he believed nuclear testing was creating grave dangers to the human race, that freedom of the seas and freedom of navigation on the seas were being threatened by the Commission’s regulation, and that the regulation was illegal and unconstitutional. On July 2, 1958, appellant sailed his yacht, the Phoenix, into the prohibited area, after first…