In 2000, on behalf of helicopter pilots, some of whom flew combat missions during the Vietnam War, and others, I sued the National Park Service (NPS) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for regulations that restricted their recreational tours over Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP) in Arizona. 

In 1987, Congress mandated that the NPS restore “natural quiet” over the Grand Canyon; however, President Bill Clinton’s NPS, under the leadership of Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, planned to end those tours altogether. That was Babbitt’s intent, despite that: (1) GCNP is huge (1.2 million acres — the size of Delaware, 277 miles long and 18 miles wide), (2) the air tours overflew a tiny and outlying portion of the park, far from the South Rim where most of the 4.5 million annual visitors experience GCNP, and (3) “natural quiet” in GCNP had long since been achieved.