By Eun-Kyung Kim
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – A federal judge dismissed Puerto Rico’s lawsuit to stop the federal government from resuming Navy bombing exercises on the territory’s island of Vieques. The Puerto Rican government said today it would appeal.
U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler said that while the political and policy issues surrounding the case were complex, “the legal issue, in contrast, is simple and straightforward.”
Puerto Rico had filed its complaint last year after Gov. Sila Calderon signed a law banning loud noises along the island’s shores. That law cited the U.S. Noise Control Act of 1972, which allows states – or, as in Puerto Rico’s case, U.S. territories – to set noise-control laws.
In a ruling issued Monday, Kessler said she must dismiss the Puerto Rico’s case “for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.” She said the federal Noise Control Act “does not provide plaintiff a cause of action to sue in federal district court for the violations alleged.”
Puerto Rican Justice Secretary Anabelle Rodriguez pledged to appeal the ruling.
“We think the decision is erroneous,” she said at a news conference today in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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