Opinion ID: 2975414
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Administrative Procedures Act

Text: The Administrative Procedures Act (“APA”), 5 U.S.C. §§ 101-913, governs the conduct of federal administrative agencies, which presumably includes the NSA, see 5 U.S.C. § 701(b)(1). The APA provides that “[a] person suffering legal wrong because of any agency action, or adversely affected or aggrieved by such action within the meaning of any relevant statute, shall be entitled to judicial review thereof.” 5 U.S.C. § 702 (emphasis added). The APA authorizes judicial review for “[a]gency action made reviewable by statute and final agency 36 action for which there is no other adequate remedy in a court.” 5 U.S.C. § 704 (emphasis added). Thus, to bring a cause of action under the APA, the plaintiffs, first and foremost, must complain of “agency action.” “Agency action” is defined in the APA as “the whole or part of an agency rule, order, license, sanction, relief, or the equivalent or denial thereof, or failure to act.” 5 U.S.C. § 551(13). This definition is divided into three parts “begin[ning] with a list of five categories of decisions made or outcomes implemented by an agency — agency rule, order, license, sanction[, or] relief.” Norton v. S. Utah Wilderness Alliance, 542 U.S. 55, 62 (2004) (quotation marks omitted). All of those categories involve circumscribed, discrete agency actions, as their definitions make clear: [1] ‘an agency statement of . . . future effect designed to implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy’ (rule); [2] ‘a final disposition . . . in a matter other than rule making’ (order); [3] a ‘permit . . . or other form of permission’ (license); [4] a ‘prohibition . . . or taking [of] other compulsory or restrictive action’ (sanction); or [5] a ‘grant of money, assistance, license, authority,’ etc., or ‘recognition of a claim, right, immunity,’ etc., or ‘taking of other action on the application or petition of, and beneficial to, a person’ (relief). Id. (quoting 5 U.S.C. §§ 551(4), (6), (8), (10), (11)) (emphasis added). The second part of the “agency action” definition — “the equivalent or denial thereof” — must be a discrete action or the denial of a discrete action, otherwise it would not be equivalent to the five listed categories. Id. And the final part of the definition — a “failure to act” — is “properly understood as a failure to take an agency action.” Id. Under Supreme Court precedent, classic examples of “agency action” include the issuance of an agency opinion, see Bennett, 520 U.S. at 157, or a declaratory ruling, see Nat’l Cable & Telecomms. Ass’n v. Brand X Internet Servs., 545 U.S. 967, 977-78 (2005). Here, however, the plaintiffs are not complaining of “agency action” as defined in the APA, and the record contains no evidence that would support such a finding. The plaintiffs challenge the NSA’s warrantless interception of overseas communications, the NSA’s failure to comply with FISA’s warrant requirements, and the NSA’s presumed failure to comply with FISA’s minimization procedures. This is conduct, not “agency action.” Furthermore, there is no authority to support the invocation of the APA to challenge generalized conduct. Looking at the “five categories” of enumerated “agency action,” the NSA’s surveillance activities, as described by the three facts of record, do not constitute, nor are they conducted pursuant to, any agency rule, order, license, sanction, or relief. Although the plaintiffs labeled the NSA’s surveillance activities as “the Program,” and the district court labeled it the “TSP,” the NSA’s wiretapping is actually just general conduct given a label for purposes of abbreviated reference. The plaintiffs do not complain of any NSA rule or order, but merely the generalized practice, which — so far as has been admitted or disclosed — was not formally enacted pursuant 36 Admittedly, this provision is seldom considered from the present viewpoint, and is generally considered as merely the means by which Congress waived sovereign immunity in actions seeking relief other than money damages. See Presbyterian Church, 870 F.2d at 524. Nos. 06-2095/2140 Am. Civil Liberties Union, et al. v. Nat’l Sec. Agency, et al. Page 28 to the strictures of the APA, but merely authorized by the President (albeit repeatedly, and possibly informally). Nor do the plaintiffs challenge any license, sanction, or relief issued by the NSA. The plaintiffs do not complain of anything equivalent to agency action, which also requires some discrete action by the NSA. See Norton, 542 U.S. at 62. The plaintiffs are not challenging any sort of “circumscribed, discrete” action on the part of the NSA, but are seeking to invalidate or alter the NSA’s generalized practice of wiretapping certain overseas communications without warrants. See id. at 64 (“[t]he limitation to discrete agency action precludes [a] broad programmatic attack”). Similarly, the plaintiffs have not alleged that the NSA failed to perform a discrete agency action. When challenging an agency’s failure to perform, the APA “empowers a court only to compel an agency to perform a ministerial or non-discretionary act.” Id. The plaintiffs contest the NSA’s failure to adhere to FISA’s warrant requirement and minimization procedures. Even assuming, arguendo, that the warrant requirement and minimization procedures are discrete agency actions, those procedures are replete with discretionary considerations, see 50 U.S.C. § 1801(h), thus disqualifying them from this definition of agency action under the APA. No matter how the plaintiffs’ claims are characterized, they do not challenge agency action as it is defined in the APA. Accordingly, the plaintiffs have not asserted a viable cause of action under the APA.37