James B. Blackburn Jr. and his five-lawyer team won a water-rights victory benefitting a flock of whooping cranes that fly each year from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast for winter refuge. But the defendants have sought an emergency stay from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
On March 18 in an amended final judgment, U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack of the Southern District of Texas in Corpus Christi ruled in favor of Blackburn’s client, The Aransas Project (TAP). TAP is a nonprofit alliance of citizens, organizations, businesses and municipalities that sought injunctive relief for the 4-foot-tall, spindly legged, white birds.
