A federal judge today granted the injunction request sought by the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction, effectively saying the auction will not be facing a government-forced shutdown or other penalties in the immediate future — and that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cannot enforce penalties it sought last month until the auction’s appeal of a prior violations charge is heard and resolved in U.S. District Court.
Federal District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock also chastised NOAA officials for their handling of the auction case, and for suggesting NOAA chief administrator Jane Lubchenco’s upholding of a guilty finding by the Coast Guard Administrative Law System against the auction was sufficient to treat that as a guilty finding on the violation charges while the auction’s appeal was still pending in U.S. District Court.
The judge, however, also noted that, if the auction is ultimately found guilty of the violations central to the case, any penalties to be served would have to be served consecutively, not concurrently.