Bright lights from cars and homes near Daytona Beach, Fla., may have to be dimmed to protect endangered sea turtles, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday. The court refused to throw out a case in which wildlife advocates sued a Florida county for failing to restrict artificial lighting on the beach, which distracts newly hatched sea turtles and leads them to walk toward land rather than the ocean. Defendants had argued that local governments cannot be sued under the federal Endangered Species Act for failing to regulate the conduct of private citizens, but the Supreme Court dismissed their case without comment.
