Judge upholds tuna/dolphin standard–again–and raps Bush cabinet “meddling”

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2004:

SAN FRANCISCO–U.S. District Judge
Thelton Henderson on August 10, 2004 upheld the
“dolphin-safe” tuna labeling standard against
government attempts to weaken or scrap it for the
fifth time in 14 years.
Ordered Henderson, “Dolphin-safe shall
continue to mean that ‘no tuna were caughtŠusing
a purse seine net intentionally deployed on or to
encircle dolphins, and that no dolphins were
killed or seriously injured,'” on the voyage that
caught the tuna.
Henderson rapped Commerce Secretary
Donald Evans and the George W. Bush
administration for “a pattern of delay and
inattention” in failing to enforce the
dolphin-safe labeling standard.
“The record is replete with evidence that
the secretary was influenced by policy concerns
unrelated to the best available scientific
evidence,” Henderson wrote.
“This court has never, in its 24 years,
reviewed a record of agency action that contained
such a compelling portrait of political meddling.”