Court Opinion

ID: 9450028
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:33:08.794019+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:07.264583
License: Public Domain

BAZELON, Chief Judge
(dissenting).
This complaint was brought by 255 citizens of the United States and 26 other countries, including eight Nobel Laureates (one of whom has twice received the award). The plaintiffs charge that the defendants, together with their counterparts in the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom, have “caused the detonation of nuclear weapons in the air, on the ground, and under water,” causing the plaintiffs “to be damaged genetically, somatically and psychologically.” They seek to enjoin such activity in the future.
Since the institution of this suit, the United States and 107 other nations have; signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty:
“Seeking to achieve the discontinuance of all test explosions of nuclear weapons for all time, determined to continue negotiations to this end, and desiring to put an end', to the contamination of man’s environment by radioactive substances,
* » * * * *
“Each of the Parties to this Treaty undertakes to prohibit, to prevent, and not to carry out any nuclear weapon test explosion, or any other nuclear explosion, at any place-under its jurisdiction or control, -» •» *
“in the atmosphere; beyond its-limits, including outer space; or underwater, including territorial waters or high seas * * *.1
Accordingly, there is not such a likelihood that further injury will occur as to require decision of the delicate questions presented. I would therefore “reverse-the judgment and remand the case to-the District Court with directions to-dismiss the complaint without prejudice.” See my opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part in Pauling v. McElroy,. 107 U.S.App.D.C. 372, 374, 278 F.2d 252, 254 (1960).
Though it disclaims doing so, the majority opinion seems to me to impugn the motives of appellants, which I think should not be done. Moreover the opinion attributes greater limitations to judicial power than the Constitution requires or the decision in this case makes-necessary. See Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez, 372 U.S. 144, 164-165, 83 S.Ct. 554, 9 L.Ed.2d 644 (1963), and cases *800there cited; Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579, 72 S.Ct. 863, 96 L.Ed. 1153 (1952); Little et al. v. Barreme et al. (The Flying Fish), 2 Cranch 170, 2 L.Ed. 243 (1804).

. Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water, August 5, 1963, U. S. Treaties and Other International Agreements.
The complaint does not refer to underground testing. Although certain underground testing is not banned by the Treaty, the parties thereto specifically undertake to seek “a treaty resulting in the permanent banning of all nuclear test explosions, including all such explosions underground.”