Source: http://openjurist.org/519/f2d/467/strickland-v-c-b-morton
Timestamp: 2013-12-07 20:58:39
Document Index: 606716924

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1411', '§ 315', '§ 701', '§ 701', '§ 701', '§ 701', '§ 1411', '§ 1411']

519 F2d 467 Strickland v. C B Morton | OpenJurist
519 F. 2d 467 - Strickland v. C B Morton	Home519 f2d 467 strickland v. c b morton
519 F2d 467 Strickland v. C B Morton 519 F.2d 467
5 Envtl. L. Rep. 20,678
Ray STRICKLAND and Sam Lorimer, Appellants,v.Hon. Rogers C. B. MORTON et al., Appellees.
Ray Strickland, Sam Lorimer, pro se.
William C. Smitherman, U. S. Atty., Phoenix, Ariz., Wallace H. Johnson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., Richard S. Alleman, Asst. U. S. Atty., Phoenix, Ariz., George R. Hyde, Eva Datz, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for appellees.
Appellants seek to reverse a decision of the Secretary of the Interior denying their separate applications for homestead entry. Under procedures specified in the Classification and Multiple Use Act of 1964, 43 U.S.C. §§ 1411-18, Federal public lands are to be classified by the Secretary of the Interior either as being "suitable for disposal," or alternatively, as being of such value "as to make them more suitable for retention in Federal ownership" and managed for public purposes. A classification decision that lands are not suitable for disposal has the effect of segregating from homestead entry the lands so classified. The lands which appellants sought to homestead being classified (prior to appellants' applications) as lands "more suitable for retention," the Secretary denied appellants' applications for homestead entry.
Appellants, invoking the jurisdictional provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, sought judicial review of the Secretary's denial of their applications in Federal District Court. The district court dismissed appellants' action on the authority of this circuit's decision in Mollohan v. Gray, 413 F.2d 349 (9th Cir. 1969), which held that agency actions under the Taylor Grazing Act, 43 U.S.C. § 315 et seq., and under similar "permissive type" statutes, are "agency action(s) . . . committed to agency discretion by law" and, therefore, under the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 701(a)(2), are not subject to judicial review. (See Mollohan, supra, at 352, and 352, n. 5: and Lutzenhiser v. Udall, 432 F.2d 328 (9th Cir. 1970).) The Classification and Multiple Use Act of 1964, with which the instant case is involved, supplements the Taylor Grazing Act, and is also such a "permissive type" statute. Thus, the district court, relying on the aforementioned precedents, concluded that it did not have jurisdiction in this case to review the Secretary's classification of the land here in question as land more suitable to be retained in Federal ownership and managed for public purposes.
There is no doubt that the district court correctly applied the legal principles set forth in our decisions in Mollohan and Lutzenhiser; however, a reinspection of those principles is now in order since both of those decisions were rendered before the United States Supreme Court's decision in Citizens to Preserve Overton Park, Inc. v. Volpe, 401 U.S. 402, 91 S.Ct. 814, 28 L.Ed.2d 136 (1971) which strictly interpreted § 701(a)(2), drastically limiting and confining that section's applicability. Under the Overton Park case, § 701(a) (2)'s preclusion of judicial review of "agency action(s) . . . committed to agency discretion by law" has been narrowly interpreted so that it deprives the court of jurisdiction to review agency actions only "in those rare instances where 'statutes are drawn in such broad terms that in a given case there is no law to apply'." (401 U.S. at 410, 91 S.Ct. at 821.)
In light of the test stated in Overton Park, the question of whether the district court was deprived of jurisdiction by § 701(a)(2) in this case, depends upon whether the discretionary powers to classify land, committed to the Secretary by the provision of the Classification and Multiple Use Act of 1964, 43 U.S.C. § 1411, are so broad that the court cannot discern from the language of the statute, or from legislative intent, a legal basis upon which to review the Secretary's exercise of his discretion in the instant case.
Section 1411 of the Classification and Multiple Use Act of 1964 provides in pertinent part:
§ 1411. Disposal or retention of lands; classification by Secretary; considerations; designations
Consistent with and supplemental to the Taylor Grazing Act of June 28, 1934 . . .
(a) The Secretary of the Interior shall develop and promulgate regulations containing criteria by which he will determine which of the public lands and other Federal lands . . . shall be (a) disposed of because they are (1) required for the orderly growth and development of a community or (2) are chiefly valuable for residential, commercial, agricultural (exclusive of lands chiefly valuable for grazing and raising forage crops), industrial, or public uses or development or (b) retained, at least during this period, in Federal ownership and managed for (1) domestic livestock grazing, (2) fish and wildlife development and utilization, (3) industrial development, (4) mineral production, (5) occupancy, (6) outdoor recreation, (7) timber production, (8) watershed protection, (9) wilderness preservation, or (10) preservation of public values that would be lost if the land passed from Federal ownership. . . .
(b) The Secretary of the Interior shall, as soon as possible, review the public lands as defined herein,