Noa Emmett Aluli v. Harold Brown, Secretary of Defense

In this action environmentalists challenged the Navy’s use of the Hawaiian island of Kahoolawe for military operations. The district court issued broad injunctive relief against the Government designed to protect the Kahoolawe environment. The Government has appealed as to that portion of the injunctive order requiring it “to file an environmental impact statement annually so long as [it] shall continue to bomb Kahoolawe.” 437 F.Supp. 602, 612 (D.Hawaii 1977). The District court concluded that this relief was warranted because each yearly appropriation request for money to conduct Kahoolawe operations constituted a “proposal for major Federal action” requiring preparation of an environmental impact statement under § 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, 42 U.S.C. § 4332 (2XC). 437 F.Supp. at 607 . In so holding the district court erred.

In Andrus v. Sierra Club, - U.S. -, 99 S.Ct. 2335 , 60 L.Ed.2d 943 (1979), the Supreme Court considered “whether § 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 . . . requires federal agencies to prepare environmental impact statements ... to accompany appropriation requests.” Id. at -, 99 S.Ct. at 2336 . The…