Source: https://openjurist.org/397/us/150
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 03:04:35+00:00

Document:
William B. CAMP, Comptroller of the Currency of the United States, et al.
Those tests were based on prior decisions of this Court, such as Tennessee Electric Power Co. v. TVA, 306 U.S. 118, 59 S.Ct. 366, 83 L.Ed. 543, where private power companies sought to enjoin TVA from operating, claiming that the statutory plan under which it was created was unconstitutional. The Court denied the competitors' standing, holding that they did not have that status 'unless the right invaded is a legal right,—one of property, one arising out of contract, one protected against tortious invasion, or one founded on a statute which confers a privilege.' Id., at 137—138, 59 S.Ct. at 369.
The 'legal interest' test goes to the merits. The question of standing is different. It concerns, apart from the 'case' or 'controversy' test, the question whether the interest sought to be protected by the complainant is arguably within the zone of interests to be protected or regulated by the statute or constitutional guarantee in question. Thus the Administrative Procedure Act grants standing to a person 'aggrieved by agency action within the meaning of a relevant statute.' 5 U.S.C. § 702 (1964 ed., Supp. IV). That interest, at times, may reflect 'aesthetic, conservational, and recreational' as well as economic values. Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. FCC, 2 Cir., 354 F.2d 608, 616; Office of Communication of United Church of Christ v. FCC, 123 U.S.App.D.C. 328, 334—340, 359 F.2d 994, 1000—1006. A person or a family may have a spiritual stake in First Amendment values sufficient to give standing to raise issues concerning the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203, 83 S.Ct. 1560, 10 L.Ed.2d 844. We mention these noneconomic values to emphasize that standing may stem from them as well as from the economic injury in which petitioners rely here. Certainly he who is 'likely to be financially' injured, FCC v. Sanders Bros. Radio Station, 309 U.S. 470, at 477, 60 S.Ct. 693, at 698, may be a reliable private attorney general to litigate the issues of the public interest in the present case.
Where statutes are concerned, the trend is toward enlargement of the class of people who may protest administrative action. The whole drive for enlarging the category of aggrieved 'persons' is symptomatic of that trend. In a closely analogous case we held that an existing entrepreneur had standing to challenge the legality of the entrance of a newcomer into the business, because the established business was allegedly protected by a valid city ordinance that protected it from unlawful competition. Chicago v. Atchison, T. & S.F.R. Co., 357 U.S. 77, 83—84, 78 S.Ct. 1063, 1066—1068, 2 L.Ed.2d 1174. In that tradition was Hardin v. Kentucky Utilities Co., 390 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 651, 19 L.Ed.2d 787, which involved a section of the TVA Act designed primarily to protect, through area limitations, private utilities against TVA competition. We held that no explicit statutory provision was necessary to confer standing, since the private utility bringing suit was within the class of persons that the statutory provision was designed to protect.
'Section 4 had a broader purpose than regulating only the service corporations. It was also a response to the fears expressed by a few senators, that without such a prohibition, the bill would have enabled 'banks to engage in a nonbanking activity,' S.Rep.No.2105, (87th Cong., 2d Sess., 7—12) (Supplemental views of Senators Proxmire, Douglas, and Neuberger), and thus constitute 'a serious exception to the accepted public policy which strictly limits banks to banking.' (Supplemental views of Senators Muskie and Clark). We think Congress has provided the sufficient statutory aid to standing even though the competition may not be the precise kind Congress legislated against.' We do not put the issue in those words, for they implicate the merits. We do think, however, that § 4 arguably brings a competitor within the zone of interests protected by it.
The Administrative Procedure Act provides that the provisions of the Act authorizing judicial review apply 'except to the extent that—(1) statutes preclude judicial review; or (2) agency action is committed to agency discretion by law.' 5 U.S.C. § 701(a) (1964 ed., Supp. IV).
In Shaughnessy v. Pedreiro, 349 U.S. 48, 51, 75 S.Ct. 591, 593—594, 99 L.Ed. 868, we referred to 'the generous review provisions' of that Act; and in that case as well as in others (see Rusk v. Cort, 369 U.S. 367, 379—380, 82 S.Ct. 787, 794—795, 7 L.Ed.2d 809) we have construed that Act not grudgingly but as serving a broadly remedial purpose.
There is no presumption against judicial review and in favor of administrative absolutism (see Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U.S. 136, 140, 87 S.Ct. 1507, 1510—1511, 18 L.Ed.2d 681), unless that purpose is fairly discernible in the statutory scheme. Cf. Switchmen's Union v. National Mediation Board, 320 U.S. 297, 64 S.Ct. 95, 88 L.Ed. 61.
We find no evidence that Congress in either the Bank Service Corporation Act or the National Bank Act2 sought to preclude judicial review of administrative rulings by the Comptroller as to the legitimate scope of activities available to national banks under those statutes. Both Acts are clearly 'relevant' statutes within the meaning of § 702. The Acts do not in terms protect a specified group. But their general policy is apparent; and those whose interests are directly affected by a broad or narrow interpretation of the Acts are easily identifiable. It is clear that petitioners, as competitors of national banks which are engaging in data processing services, are within that class of 'aggrieved' persons who, under § 702, are entitled to judicial review of 'agency action.' Whether anything in the Bank Service Corporation Act or the National Bank Act gives petitioners a 'legal interest' that protects them against violations of those Acts, and whether the actions of respondents did in fact violate either of those Acts, are questions which go to the merits and remain to be decided below.

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