Mr. Bell Argues His Case

Before the U.S. Supreme Court, the snail darter v. the dam

Dressed in a swallow-tailed coat, Attorney General Griffin Bell stood before the nine Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court and held up a small plastic vial containing a dead three-inch fish. Despite some mirth in the audience, Bell was not being frivolous. Making his first argument ever before the court, the Attorney General contended that the small fish, known as a snail darter, should not be allowed to hold up construction on a $120 million dam project that is 90% complete.

Like the lousewort, which stalled a $690 million hydroelectric project in Maine, the snail darter is an endangered species protected by a federal law. The Tennessee Valley Authority's Tellico Dam project would turn the free-flowing Little Tennessee River, the snail darter's only natural habitat, into a stagnant lake. To keep the tiny fish from being wiped out, a lower court ordered construction on the dam stopped.

Arguing that the ruling should be reversed, Bell told the court that the snail darter had been resettled in a nearby creek. Peering down from the bench, the Justices wanted to know how the snail darter was faring in its new home. Apparently well, responded the Attorney General, although his opponent, Environmental Advocate Zygmunt Plater, disagreed.

The court's question indicated that it may send the case back down to a lower court to determine whether, in fact, the dam would doom the snail darter. The Justices also wanted to know why Secretary of the Interior Cecil Andrus had argued against the dam in an appendix to the Government's brief. Asked Justice Lewis F. Powell: "Why wasn't this resolved in the Cabinet?" It should have been, answered Bell. Indeed, the Administration's divided position was one reason why Bell chose this case to plead before the Supreme Court, a plea that seemed to have added weight since traditionally an Attorney General makes only one appearance before the court during his term of office.

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