Lecturer in Law and Director of the Environmental Law Clinic Deborah A. Sivas is quoted in a Los Angeles Times article about President Bush's order to suspend current laws against the use of sonar near marine mammals:

Deborah A. Sivas, director of the Environmental Law Clinic at Stanford Law School, said the regulations implementing the environmental policy act don't define what constitutes an emergency.

But she added that the courts often defer to a federal agency's long-standing interpretation of the law.

"It's an interesting question," Sivas said. "Is the agency's interpretation a reasonable one? Is it a reasonable loophole?"