Administrative Action: Adjudication

Question 1

Agency authority to adjudicate: CFTC v. Shore/general questions

Answer 1

Consider, in general: does this interfere with the Constitutionally-assigned role of the judiciary?

Does the claim involve a public or private right?

Does the issue present an example of why Congress departed from the requirements of Art. III?

Does the issue involve specialized agency knowledge?

Question 2

Agency authority to adjudicate: Public v. Private rights

Answer 2

1. Crowell v. Benson: private (common law) right to damages for workplace injury in tort suit by worker against employer
2. Northern Pipeline: private (common law) breach of contract claim brought by company undergoing reorganization
3. CFTC v. Schor: private (common law) breach of contract counter-claim brought by broker for client’s debit balance.
4. Stern v. Marshall: private (common law) defamation claim and private (common law) tortious interference with gift claim.
5. Award of patent? Public right
6. Criminal prosecutions? Private right
7. Disability award from Social Security Administration? Public right

Question 3

Constitutional Due Process: Interests Protected

Answer 3

Roth: “life, liberty, and property” are protected and require due process

Question 4

Constitutional Due Process: Interests Protected: Property

Answer 4

a. Is there a statutory entitlement for persons qualified to receive them (the property/benefits)? Goldberg
b. Is it an informal, implied, promise of future continued employment?
c. Is there a common law right in state law?
d. Is the benefit nondiscretionary?
e. Are Medicaid subsidies being terminated (for nursing home owners)? Rent subsidies being terminated (for landlords)?

Question 5

Constitutional Due Process: Interests Protected: Liberty

Answer 5

a. Is the liberty interest “objectively, deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition, such that the interest is implicit in the concept of ordered liberty?
b. Is there stigma plus some harm to the party’s legal rights or obligations? Constantineau.
c. Is the restriction to physical freedom an atypical or significant hardship to the prisoner? Sandin and Wilkinson.
d. Is there a statute (positive law) that creates an expectation of a particular interest (i.e. obtaining parole)?
e. Are there sources in natural law (as recognized by common law courts) that support the party’s liberty interest?

Question 6

Constitutional Due Process: Procedural Requirements: Mathews v. Eldridge test

Answer 6

a. What is the importance of the party’s interest?
b. What is the risk of erroneous deprivation of the interest because of the procedures, and what is the probative value of additional procedural safeguards?
c. What is the government’s interest?

Question 7

Constitutional Due Process: Procedural Requirements: Procedures Due

Answer 7

a. Could the agency have given proper notice?
b. Could the agency have allowed the party to appear in person to give evidence before a supervisor?
c. Could the agency have allowed the party to cross-examine?
d. Could the agency have allowed the party to bring counsel?
e. Could the agency have provided a short opinion based on the law and facts at the hearing?

Question 8

Statutory Hearing Rights: Formal Hearings: Adjudication

Answer 8

1. Cross-examination “as may be required for a full and true disclosure?
2. Discovery so as to present evidence to rebut the evidence of the opponent?
3. Statement of findings and conclusions and the reasons and bases for those findings on “all material issues of fact, law, or discretion presented in the record.”
4. Incorporation of the lower-body’s decision to parse out what is incorrect or what is not correct?

Question 9

Statutory Hearing Rights: Informal Hearings

Answer 9

1. Agency must provide a prompt notice of denial of the party’s written application, petition, or other request. APA 555(e)
2. Did the agency include a brief statement of the grounds of denial? APA 555(e).