Navy may outweigh whales on Supreme Court's scales Whales may simply have to pay the price as the Navy prepares for war, Supreme Court justices suggested Wednesday. In a closely watched environmental case, justices repeatedly sounded sympathetic Wednesday morning to Pentagon officials who want to run large-scale Navy exercises off the Southern California coast. While the resulting underwater sonar storm disturbs marine mammals, it also helps prepare sailors for combat. "I thought the whole point of the armed forces was to hurt the environment," Justice Stephen Breyer said, half-jokingly. "Of course, they're going to do harm." The Pentagon and environmentalists disagree over exactly how much mid-frequency active sonar injures marine mammals, and justices couldn't resolve the conflict Wednesday. An apparent majority of justices, though, did appear ready to defer to military expertise in matters of national security. The technical but crucial legal question in Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council is when a federal agency can sidestep conventional environmental protections by declaring an emergency. A Pentagon victory could make such emergency declarations more common, and on more than just military matters....