Court will not hear reef case

U.S. Supreme Court declines to take on challenge to Coastal Commission, but fight’s not over yet.The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear arguments in a legal case about an artificial reef built years ago in the waters near Newport Beach.

In June, the California Supreme Court ruled against the Newport Beach-based Marine Forests Society when it determined the California Coastal Commission -- which the society alleged to be unconstitutional -- is a legal body. In September, Ronald Zumbrun, a Sacramento-based attorney who represents the Marine Forests Society, filed a petition asking the nation’s high court to hear an appeal in the case.

Though the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, the Marine Forests Society’s legal feud with the Coastal Commission is not over, Zumbrun said. He said two cases filed in Sacramento against the Coastal Commission remain open.

An interview request to the Coastal Commission was referred to Sara Christie, the commission’s legislative liaison, who called the development “not unexpected good news.”

“The question of the commission’s constitutionality is no longer in question,” Christie said.

Before June’s decision, Zumbrun and Marine Forests Society head Rodolphe Streichenberger won two legal victories in which the powerful Coastal Commission was declared unconstitutional.

The Marine Forests Society’s case hinged on the fact that two-thirds of the body’s voting members served at the pleasure of state legislators. Zumbrun argued that since the Coastal Commission performs executive actions, such as granting coastal development permits, legislators’ power over the commission violated the separation of powers principle.

In 2003, Gov. Gray Davis signed a law altering the commission to give legislative appointees fixed four-year terms. The law was written to remedy the constitutional issues raised by the Marine Forests Society’s case. In June, the state Supreme Court ruled the commission, as modified in 2003, was legal.

The Marine Forests Society’s artificial reef was constructed from tires and plastic materials in 1987 without a Coastal Commission permit. The commission issued a cease-and-desist order against the reef in 1999, and the society went to court in 2000.

One of the cases that remains open is an attempt to block that cease-and-desist order. Zumbrun said procedures relating to that case had been on hold as long as the courts were hearing arguments over the commission’s constitutionality.

Christie said Coastal Commission officials remain intent on reaching their objective of removing the artificial reef.

“Hopefully, they won’t waste a great of deal of time and money on the merits of the case and they’ll take Mr. Streichenberger’s trash out of the ocean,” Christie said.

Streichenberger could not be reached for comment Monday.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at [email protected].