Download Judicial Review of Agency Actions: Standing, Jurisdiction, and Exhaustion of Remedies and more Study notes Administrative Law in PDF only on Docsity!
Chapter 6 - Standing to Seek judicial Review and the Timing of Judicial Review
Getting into court
Which APA section is the general provision for getting into court when the agency does something against the law? 28 USC § 1331 provides jurisdiction in the district courts for federal questions.
Given this law, why must you bring many actions against agencies in the circuit courts? What is the rationale for requiring that agency actions be brought in the circuit courts?
What is the case and controversy requirement?
Can case and controversy be waived by Congress? What does it have to do with advisory opinions from federal courts? Can you get an advisory opinion from LA courts?
Standing
What is standing?
Is standing a constitutional or judicial doctrine? Can Congress do away with standing?
Discuss the components of standing:
Injury Causation Redressability.
The Sierra club needs a member with standing to contest an order allowing the cutting of redwood trees in a wilderness area that is remote, but is accessible to hikers.
Joe really likes trees and thinks about them a lot. He wants to protect the
redwoods, but he never gets out of NYC. Can he get standing? What will a person need to show to get standing?
The EPA has issued a permit to cut bristlecone pine trees on a mountain top that is not accessible by the public.
What standing problem does this create when the Sierra Club wants to contest the order?
What are the issues with getting standing to challenge agency actions that affect animals?
What if you work with lab animals? Does it matter when? Visit the zoo regularly?
Why did Eastern Kentucky fail on redressability? What is the special problem with redressability for procedural injuries?
Do you have to show that the result would be different with the additional procedure? How have the courts relaxed the traditional notions of causation for procedural injuries?
Distinguish the "injury in fact" and "zone of interest" tests.
Why are the ranchers - Bennett v. Spear, 520 U.S. 154 (1997) - in the zone of interest and the mail carriers - Air Courier Conference of America v. American Postal Workers Union ) - are not? How was the zone of interest different between Hazardous Waste Treatment Council v. Thomas , 885 F.2d 918 (D.C. Cir. 1989) and Honeywell International, Inc. v. EPA , 374 F.3d 1363 (D.C. Cir. 2004)
When can fear be the basis for injury?
What was the basis for standing in NRDC v. EPA , 464 F.3d 1 (D.C. Cir. 2006)? What made standing easier to show in Friends of the Earth v. Laidlaw Environmental Services , 528 U.S. 167 (2000)?
except to the extent that agency action is committed to agency discretion by law.
Does Congress have to specifically allow judicial review in an agency enabling statute ( Abbott Laboratories )?
In Overton Park , the Secretary said that his actions could not be reviewed because they were “committed to agency discretion by law.”
Did the court accept this? What did the court require the Secretary to do to facilitate deciding the question? What does the Secretary have to show if he wants the court to defer to his decision?
Block dealt with a law that established price supports for milk.
Who is the law intended to benefit? Were consumers able to get standing to contest milk price increases? How did the court’s reasoning clarify Overton Park? Is Block really just a zone of interest case?
Webster v. Doe dealt with the right to a hearing by a fired national security employee.
Congress said no hearing for these employees. Did the court accept this? Why? What, if any, claims did the court say Congress could not prevent from being reviewed?
Congress gives the Indian Health Service unallocated money in its budget. Congress earmarks the money for a new health center.
What is an earmark? The Indian Health Service does not build the health center. Can this decision be challenged by the affected tribe? Why?
What is statutory preclusion of review?
How was it used in the smallpox vaccine compensation act? Are there claims congress cannot prevent from being reviewed by the courts? What legal questions about agency actions will the court always review? ( Webster v. Doe , 486 U.S. 592 (1988)) Where does the original jurisdiction of the United States Supreme Court come into your answer?
What is collateral estoppel and non-acquiesce? What is the general rule on which actions are reviewed by district courts and which are reviewed by circuit courts?
Is there a Final Agency Action to Contest?
What is a facial challenge to a regulation or agency policy?
Why are facial challenges disfavored by the courts? What additional information does the court get when it requires the plaintiff to wait to until there is enforcement?
Will the court review an action that is within an agency’s prosecutorial discretion?
Why not? Why didn't the court require the FDA to explain why it was not regulating the use of drugs for lethal injections?
What is a final agency action?
Why is final agency action required before you can go to court in most cases? What do the courts look for to determine it an agency action is final?
What is the finality problem with reviewing non-legislative rules, i.e., guidelines, letter rulings, etc.?
What do you have to show to claim a final agency action for documents like opinion letters? Why was the letter ruling was found to be final action in National Automatic Laundry? Was National Automatic Laundry really an opinion letter to a third party? National Automatic Laundry was a 1971 case. With the evolution of the law
injunction in a pre-enforcement challenge case? What are possible agency counter arguments against granting an injunction?
What is a mandamus action? (Remember Bonvillian II )
What do you have to show about the agency action requested? Why are courts reticent to grant mandamus? What was the basis for granting mandamus in Bonvillian II? How does this undermine the rationale for finding that ALJs are not unconstitutional Article V judges in Wooley?
Exhaustion of Remedies
What is exhaustion of remedies?
What are the APA requirements for exhaustion of remedies? What does Portela-Gonzalez tell us about common law exhaustion as compared to APA exhaustion? Why is failing to exhaust your remedies (if required and not within an exception) a fatal error that the court cannot correct on equitable grounds? How is the final agency action requirement related to exhaustion of remedies? Have you exhausted your remedies if you miss a deadline and cannot complete your agency appeal?
What are the exceptions to exhaustion of remedies?
Legal exceptions? Factual exceptions? Why might you choose to go through the agency appeals process even if you could go directly to court under an exception, or because exhaustion is not required for your case?
What is administrative issue exhaustion?
When might the court waive it? Why would you argue that waiving it in this situation is consistent with Matthews? Jurisprudentially, how do you argue that it is OK to waive the failure to present all issues, given that exhaustion itself cannot be waived?
What is the futility doctrine and how do you satisfy it?
Primary Jurisdiction
When does the primary jurisdiction doctrine come up? How do the primary jurisdiction doctrine and exhaustion doctrine differ? What are the standards the court should use when deciding whether to defer to an agency in a primary jurisdiction question?
