Opinion ID: 346947
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Local Regulation Must Be Reasonable.

Text: 36 ( i) Constitutional and Statutory Bases. We believe the scope of the Port Authority's power as an airport proprietor to impose use restrictions based on noise considerations is defined by the limited role Congress reserved for it in the national scheme we have briefly sketched. The proper domain of the operator is the issu(ance of regulations) or establish(ment of requirements) as to the permissible level of noise which can be created by aircraft using the airport. S.Rep. No. 1353, supra at 6, U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1968, p. 2694. It is clear to us that the Port Authority is vested only with the power to promulgate reasonable, nonarbitrary and non-discriminatory regulations that establish acceptable noise levels for the airport and its immediate environs. Any other conduct by an airport proprietor would frustrate the statutory scheme and unconstitutionally burden the commerce Congress sought to foster. 37 The Supreme Court this Term held that localities may require federal licensees to observe conservation and environmental protection regulations so long as these measures are reasonable and nondiscriminatory. Douglas v. Seacoast Products, Inc., 431 U.S. 265, ---, 97 S.Ct. 1740, 52 L.Ed.2d 304 (1977). Douglas was concerned with an ordinance of the Commonwealth of Virginia that purported, apparently on environmental grounds, to ban a non-resident, but federally certified, company from certain commercial fishing in Chesapeake Bay. The challenged regulation, like the one before us, concerned a field Congress has traditionally left to State and local government. The Court instructed us again, however, that the legitimate local power had to be exercised in a nondiscriminatory fashion and in conformity with federal law. Congress has left room only for local action that advances and is consistent with federal policy; other, noncomplementary exercises of local prerogative are forbidden. 3 38 We find the analogy to the instant case striking. Congress has reserved to proprietors the authority to enact reasonable noise regulations, as an exercise of ownership rights in the airport, because they are in a better position to assure the public weal. Under this scheme, foreign commercial airlines are not immunized from the operation of the normal incidents of the local power. But pervading this strategy of national-local cooperation, and inherent in it, is the understanding and, indeed, necessity that the local body will not unreasonably hinder the accomplishment of legitimate national goals. See also Huron Portland Cement Co. v. Detroit, 362 U.S. 440, 80 S.Ct. 813, 4 L.Ed.2d 852 (1960); Toye Bros. Yellow Cab Co. v. Irby, 437 F.2d 806 (5th Cir. 1971). 39 Counsel for the Port Authority clearly conceded in argument before us that the Port Authority's power to set noise rules was subject to the proviso that they be reasonable. Thus, in response to Judge Van Graafeiland's question concerning the scope of the Port Authority's asserted jurisdiction, Mr. Falvey replied: 40 The Port Authority has the right to decide, on the basis of reasonable, nondiscriminatory regulations, whether or not to accept types of aircraft at its airports. (Emphasis added.) 41 We assume that the Port Authority is compelled to this view, not only by the considerations we have outlined above, but by its compact with the Secretary of Transportation as well, that JFK would be available for public use on fair and reasonable terms and without unjust discrimination. 49 U.S.C. § 1718(1). See City of Dallas v. Southwest Airlines Co., 494 F.2d 773 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1079, 95 S.Ct. 668, 42 L.Ed.2d 674 (1974); Aircraft Owners & Pilots Assn. v. Port Authority, 305 F.Supp. 93 (E.D.N.Y.1969). 42 (ii) Treaties. Our conclusion that the Port Authority may ban supersonic aircraft only pursuant to reasonable noise regulations is further supported by a consideration of United States treaty obligations. In his prescient opinion, Secretary Coleman warned that total ban of the Concorde at this time, without giving it any chance to prove itself, would conceivably be attacked as discriminatory. Decision at 11-12. Of course, all agree that equal, nondiscriminatory treatment of domestic and foreign air commerce is the touchstone of the complex network of agreements regulating international aeronautical traffic of which the United States is a major beneficiary. The bilateral compacts between this country, Great Britain and France indicate that each signatory will subject the air carriers of the other to evenly-applied laws and regulations. See United States-France Air Transport Services Agreement, Art. V., 61 Stat. 3445, T.I.A.S. No. 1679 (March 27, 1947); Bermuda Agreement, Art. 5, 60 Stat. 1499, T.I.A.S. No. 1507 (Feb. 11, 1946). See also Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention), 61 Stat. 1180, T.I.A.S. No. 1591 (August 9, 1946). 43 The airlines contend that the Port Authority's ban on Concorde operations is not a valid and enforceable regulation under the bilateral agreements. They urge that the Authority's action is in fact not a rule of general application, but an ad hoc measure, directed solely at them, and providing no opportunity for the airlines to show the Concorde is environmentally acceptable. We agree, of course, that the failure of a local airport proprietor to promulgate an even-handed noise regulation for application to both domestic and foreign carriers would raise a significant likelihood of the type of discrimination that is forbidden under binding treaty commitments. But this is not to say that foreign airlines cannot be subjected to any local regulations, nor is it to say that local government must blind itself to significant differences in the noise characteristics of aircraft, merely because they are operated by foreign carriers. Cf. Guaranty Trust Co. v. United States, 304 U.S. 126, 143, 58 S.Ct. 785, 82 L.Ed. 1224 (1937). Indeed, British and French airlines have complied with JFK's rule excluding jet aircraft producing more than 112 PNdB for nearly two decades, apparently without complaint. 44 The issue, then, is whether the Concorde's concededly revolutionary technology justifies a temporary ban of operations for study of the advisability of applying to it the noise regulations generally applicable to jet aircraft and for consideration, if necessary, of new and reasonable regulations tailored to the special noise characteristics of the SST. The reasonableness of the Port Authority's ban or the study itself is not before us. Accordingly we are not called upon to decide this sensitive question. 4 We are compelled to note, however, that, should the Port Authority's action be found arbitrary and capricious, a serious question would be raised concerning its compatibility with American treaty arrangements. The delicate framework of international understanding that makes possible the flourishing of transoceanic air travel has already been rent by the Concorde controversy; it is manifestly imperative that noise regulations, promulgated by those who, like the Port Authority, operate our international airports, withstand all allegations of arbitrariness or discrimination.