Supreme Court dismisses ACF Basin case News
Supreme Court dismisses ACF Basin case

The US Supreme Court announced its ruling in Florida v. Georgia on Thursday, holding unanimously that Florida’s exceptions to the special master’s report were overruled.

The case was a dispute over the ACF Basin which provides water to both Florida and Georgia. Florida claimed that Georgia was using too much of the water which caused low flow into the Apalachicola river, damaging Florida’s river ecosystem and oyster fisheries. The case was heard before the court once in 2018 and has since gone to a Special Master who ruled that Florida had not proved via “clear and convincing evidence” that Georgia’s overuse of the water was the cause of the damage.

Justice Barrett, who authored the opinion, looked at both of Florida’s claims to see if they met the burden to find Georgia responsible. The claim about the oyster fishery collapse hinges on a multistep causal chain that claims Georgia’s overconsumption caused the levels of saltwater to rise, resulting in oysters deaths. Georgia claims the cause is simply overharvesting oysters. Barret pointed out the court does not have the scientific expertise to decide which claim is correct but states that Florida has not presented sufficient evidence to refute Georgia’s claim. In fact, Florida’s own documents and witnesses “reveal that Florida allowed unprecedented levels of oyster harvesting in the years before the collapse” and “failed to adequately reshell its oyster bars.” Further, Florida’s own witnesses do not show that it’s “highly probable” the collapse was caused by Georgia’s overconsumption.

The court also found no evidence that the river’s ecosystem had been damaged. Florida presented evidence that has no real-world value, as it never proved that the species were actively being eliminated. In fact, although Dr. Allan claimed that the population of the fat threeridge mussel was declining, Fish and Wildlife said they are stable and may increase in population. For this reason, Florida failed to prove that it was highly probable that Georgia’s overconsumption caused ecosystem damage.

The case has been dismissed.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail

On April 16, 1963, an incarcerated Martin Luther King, Jr. (arrested for demonstrating in defiance of a court order) wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to a published statement by eight fellow clergymen from Alabama.

Part of the letter read: We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. Read the full text of the Letter.

Former communist countries admitted for EU accession

On April 16, 2003, the 2003 Treaty of Accession was signed by 10 countries, admitting them for European Union (EU) ascension. After Malta and Cyprus, eight of the ten new EU nations (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) were former communist countries. The signing of the treaty in Athens marked the first time that former members of the Soviet Bloc joined the EU.

Learn more about EU expansion from the organization's website.

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