 For example, in "Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc.", , the Supreme Court held that an industrial polluter, against whom various deterrent civil penalties were being pursued, could not claim that the case was moot, even though the polluter had ceased polluting and had closed the factory responsible for the pollution.The court noted that so long as the polluter still retained its license to operate such a factory, it could open similar operations elsewhere if not deterred by the penalties sought.Another example occurs when a court dismisses as "moot" a legal challenge to an existing law, where the law being challenged is either amended or repealed through legislation before the court case could be settled.