ELR Citation: ELR 20146
No(s). 71-1242 (9th Cir. Mar 22, 1972)

A municipal ordinance which restricts jet aircraft operation at a privately owned airport within the city limits in an effort to reduce noise pollution violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, and the lower court's permanent injunction of its enforcement is affirmed. The Federal Aviation Act of 1958, as amended, exhibits Congress' intent to preempt the regulation of interstate navigation of the nation's airspace by empowering the Federal Aviation Administrator to broadly consider many aspects of the public interest, including the abatement of noise, in his regulation of the use of the airways. Pursuant to this authority regulations designed to reduce the effects of aircraft noise have been promulgated. Local regulation which emphasized only one aspect of the public interest, environmental protection, could easily upset the delicate balance struck by the Administrator. The municipal ordinance stands as an obstacle to accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress.

Counsel for Plaintiff
Robert C. Packard
Kirtland & Packard
639 South Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90014

Counsel for Defendants
Samuel Gorlick City Attorney
Richard L. Sieg, Jr. Asst. City Attorney
Burbank, CA

Before: BROWNING, DUNIWAY, and TRASK, Circuit Judges.