Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/22-1008_1b82.pdf
Page Number: 66

20 

CORNER POST, INC. v. BOARD OF GOVERNORS, FRS 

JACKSON, J., dissenting 

IV 
Today’s ruling is not only baseless.  It is also extraordi-
narily consequential.  In one fell swoop, the Court has effec-
tively eliminated any limitations period for APA lawsuits, 
despite  Congress’s  unmistakable  policy  determination  to 
cut off such suits within six years of the final agency action. 
The Court has decided that the clock starts for limitations 
purposes whenever a new regulated entity is created.  This 
means that, from this day forward, administrative agencies 
can  be  sued  in  perpetuity  over  every  final  decision  they 
make. 

The majority’s ruling makes legal challenges to decades-
old  agency  decisions  fair  game,  even  though  courts  of  ap-
peals  had  previously  applied  §2401(a)  to  find  untimely  a
range  of  belated  APA  challenges.   For  example,  a  lower
court rejected an APA challenge to the Food and Drug Ad-
ministration’s  approval  of  the  abortion  medication  mife-
pristone that was brought more than two decades after the
relevant agency action.  See Alliance for Hippocratic Medi-
cine v. FDA, 78 F. 4th 210, 242 (CA5 2023).  A 2008 APA 
challenge  to  a  1969  ruling  by  the  Bureau  of  Alcohol,  To-
bacco,  Firearms  and  Explosives  implementing  the  Gun 
Control  Act  was  also  bounced  on  statute  of  limitations 
grounds.  See Hire Order Ltd. v. Marianos, 698 F. 3d 168, 
170  (CA4  2012).    Other  unquestionably  tardy  APA  suits
have been dismissed on similar grounds too.11 

No more.  After today, even the most well-settled agency 

—————— 

11 See, e.g., Alabama v. PCI Gaming Auth., 801 F. 3d 1278, 1292 (CA11
2015) (2013 challenge to Secretary of Interior’s 1984, 1992, and 1995 de-
cisions to take certain land into trust for tribes); Wong v. Doar, 571 F. 3d 
247, 263 (CA2 2009) (2007 challenge to 1980 Medicaid regulation); Dunn-
McCampbell Royalty Interest, Inc. v. National Park Serv., 112 F. 3d 1283, 
1286–1287  (CA5  1997)  (1994  challenge  to  1979  National  Park  Service 
regulations); Shiny Rock Mining Corp. v. United States, 906 F. 2d 1362, 
1365–1366 (CA9 1990) (1984 challenges to 1964 and 1965 land manage-
ment orders).