A federal appeals court yesterday temporarily barred the District from enforcing a new law that bans rail transport companies from shipping hazardous materials through the city.
Saying it needs more time to review legal issues, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued its order just hours before the law was to take effect.
At this CSX yard in Cumberland, Md., hazmat cars would be "bunched" together before heading to the D.C. area.
(Timothy Jacobsen -- AP)
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The judges -- Karen LeCraft Henderson, A. Raymond Randolph and John G. Roberts -- said in the brief written order that their action was not "in any way a ruling on the merits" of the case.
They acted at the request of CSX Transportation Inc., which is appealing a lower court ruling, issued Monday, that upheld the ban.
The appellate court ordered the parties supporting the law -- the D.C. government and the Sierra Club -- to file responses to CSX's appeal by Friday afternoon.
CSX sees the ban as an unlawful intrusion on interstate commerce and a dangerous precedent that could open the door to similar prohibitions in other cities where rail lines run near densely populated communities.
The company filed a federal lawsuit in February to overturn the law, soon after the D.C. Council passed the ban and Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) signed it.
The federal government -- specifically the departments of Homeland Security and Transportation -- has sided with CSX.
In a statement posted yesterday on the CSX Web site, the company said it appreciated the prompt action by the appellate panel.
Supporters of the ban have maintained that it is an urgently needed step toward safeguarding the nation's capital from a catastrophic terrorist attack.
Rail cars transporting hazardous materials travel on tracks near the Capitol and within a couple of miles of downtown, and experts have said an attack on a train transporting such cargo could kill thousands of people.
CSX says that in recent months, it has voluntarily rerouted some such shipments away from the District.
But advocates of the ban say the safety of D.C. residents should not depend on the goodwill of a powerful, profit-seeking business.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, who upheld the law in the ruling Monday, said neither the railroad nor the federal government had provided evidence that CSX would suffer irreparable harm if the ban took effect.
Instead, he said in his ruling, the company relied on "vague" predictions of higher costs and greater logistical difficulties. Such fears, he said, "paled in comparison to the potential devastation" of an attack on a rail car transporting hazardous materials.
The case raises important legal questions for local jurisdictions. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, cities and states have been called upon to take on more responsibilities in combating terrorism.
Supporters of the ban say the District is doing just that. The rail system's vulnerabilities, these supporters say, have largely been ignored, and the ban is an attempt to focus on a serious problem.
Council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), who sponsored the law, said she was confident that the appellate court would uphold the law. The District, as the nation's capital, is a unique terrorist target and deserves special protections, she said.
The federal government has so far failed to take decisive action, she said, and that would make it difficult for the judges considering the case to go against the city.
"I can't imagine anyone disagreeing with that point," she said.
