Judge Smith was one of three judges on a panel that heard the appeal to '' Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC v. Salazar '' , a case challenging the U.S. Department of the Interior 's six-month moratorium on exploratory drilling in deep water that was adopted in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and the subsequent oil spill . The lower court had struck down the Department of the Interior 's moratorium as arbitrary and capricious government action , and the Fifth Circuit panel denied the government 's emergency request to stay the lower court 's decision pending appeal
Deepwater Horizon explosion
Deepwater Horizon explosion
Jerry Edwin Smith