CIT Denies Request to Stay Injunction Against Mexican Fish Imports
The Justice Department failed to meet the legal requirement for a stay of the Court of International Trade's injunction against the importation of fish and shellfish caught in Mexican fisheries using gillnets (see 1807260039), CIT said in an Oct. 22 ruling. The decision is part of a lawsuit over protecting the endangered vaquita porpoise. "In short, Congress determined that when a marine mammal is endangered -- such as the vaquita is here -- because of foreign fishing technologies, targeted embargoes on fish caught using those technologies are the remedies to be imposed," CIT Judge Gary Katzmann said. "The Government’s regulatory preferences do not override this legislative command."
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The government argued that CIT should stay the preliminary injunction pending appeal, in part, because the U.S. government is "suffering ongoing, serious harm as a result of the injunction." The DOJ "continues to object that the Court’s rulings ignore its concerns about asserted negotiations with Mexico," Katzmann said. "Those speculative concerns, however, are not within the province of the court, as Congress has made clear through the language of the statute."