Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The federal court in Honolulu has officially adjudicated a civil lawsuit, brought by the Territory of American Samoa — through ASG and the Governor’s Office — against federal defendants, including the U.S National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) dealing with the Large Vessel Protected Area (LVPA) in territorial waters.

As reported by Samoa News in the past, the plaintiff — Territory of American Samoa — in 2017 sued NMFS and other federal officials over a 2016 rule in which NMFS reduced the LVPA from 50 miles to 12 to help the US locally based longline fleet.

The lawsuit argued among other things that the federal agency acted arbitrarily in changing the boundaries. The Territory also argued that the final rule “threatened cultural fishing rights protected by the Deeds of Cession.”

The federal court in Honolulu, which heard the case, sided with American Samoa but NMFS and other federal defendants appealed the ruling to the San Francisco-based U.S Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal whose three-judge panel reversed the lower court’s decision in a ruling in 2020.

Then last year, the plaintiff filed a “writ of certiorari” petition asking the U.S Supreme Court to review the federal appeal’s court ruling, arguing — among other things — that the “Ninth Circuit’s decision threatens to disrupt the relationship between the United States and one of its longstanding territories — a relationship predicated upon voluntary agreements that had served both sides well for more than a century.”

However, the Supreme Court last summer “denied” the petition.

As the case remained open at the federal court in Honolulu, U.S District Court Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi last month issued an order which states that in light of the Ninth Circuit’s decision, “this Court is INCLINED to grant summary judgment in favor of Defendants on the ground that the final rule at issue in this case is valid. Final judgment would then be entered, and this case would be closed.”

Additionally any objections to the inclination must be filed by Dec. 06 this year. Online court records show no objections were submitted on the matter and Dec. 08, Judge Kobayashi issued an order, which provided background of the case and the decision by the Ninth Circuit reversing the lower-court’s ruling.

“There being no remaining claims in this case, the Clerk’s Office is DIRECTED to immediately enter final judgment in Defendants’ favor as to all of Plaintiff’s claims, pursuant to this Order, and close this case,” Judge Kobayashi wrote.

And the Clerk’s Office — also on Dec. 08 — complied as ordered, with the final judgment entered in court records in favor of the defendants.