A federal court has upheld the government’s ability to require commercial fishing boat owners to pay for monitors aboard their vessels, a year after the Supreme Court took up the case and broadly curbed federal agencies’ authority.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island ruled Tuesday that a NOAA Fisheries rule was lawful under the primary U.S. fisheries law, the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA).
Senior Judge William Smith said the court must exercise its independent judgment on whether an agency acted within its authority.
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“In doing so, ” he wrote, “the Court concludes that the MSA authorizes the Final Rule.”
