Opinion ID: 565274
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Justiciability--Ripeness

Text: 25 Although the individual appellees do have standing, it is our conclusion that their first amendment challenges are not ripe for review. Therefore, we vacate the district court's conclusion in this respect as a basis for its judgment. 26 Ripeness is  'peculiarly a question of timing'  Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation v. Board of Oil & Gas Conservation, 792 F.2d 782, 788 (9th Cir.1986) (quoting Regional Rail Reorganization Act Cases, 419 U.S. 102, 140, 95 S.Ct. 335, 357, 42 L.Ed.2d 320 (1974)). When considering ripeness, we must determine whether the federal court is the most appropriate institution to address the [plaintiffs'] claims at this particular time. Id. at 787. Ripeness, like other justiciability issues, is not a legal concept with a fixed content or susceptible of scientific verification. Poe v. Ullman, 367 U.S. 497, 508, 81 S.Ct. 1752, 1758, 6 L.Ed.2d 989 (1961). Our resolution of this issue is, however, guided by two considerations: (1) whether the issues are fit for judicial decision and (2) whether the parties will suffer hardship if we decline to consider the issues. Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U.S. 136, 149, 87 S.Ct. 1507, 1515, 18 L.Ed.2d 681 (1967), overruled on other grounds, Califano v. Sanders, 430 U.S. 99, 105, 97 S.Ct. 980, 984, 51 L.Ed.2d 192 (1977). 27 This case has come to us upon a sketchy record and with many unknown facts. Given the procedural posture of the case, the facts understandably have not been well-developed. As a result, we do not know, for example, whether the appellees are actually members of the PFLP or what specific acts the government alleges the appellees to have committed in violation of the challenged provisions. In such situations, the Supreme Court has indicated that we ought not to exercise jurisdiction. W.E.B. DuBois Clubs of America v. Clark, 389 U.S. 309, 312, 88 S.Ct. 450, 452, 19 L.Ed.2d 546 (1967) (per curiam). Even in the case of a pre-enforcement challenge such as this, the exercise of jurisdiction without proper factual development is inappropriate. As explained by the Court, the District Court should not be forced to decide ... constitutional questions in a vacuum. W.E.B. DuBois Clubs. The effect would be that important and difficult constitutional issues would be decided devoid of factual context and before it was clear that [the suing parties] were covered by the Act. Id.; see also Abbott Laboratories, 387 U.S. at 148-49, 87 S.Ct. at 1515 (agency action is not fit for judicial review if the necessary facts have not been sufficiently developed). 28 Additionally, we lack the benefit of the INS's interpretation of the challenged provisions. For that matter, we are not beneficiaries of even the most tentative position by the INS in that respect. Indeed, no agency or court of which we are aware has ever had an opportunity to interpret these provisions or to establish a policy implementing them. Although the provisions have been codified in various forms since 1918, see Act of October 16, 1918, 40 Stat. 1012, the parties have not cited, nor have we found, any case or instance when they have been previously applied or interpreted. See Socialist Workers Party v. Attorney General, 642 F.Supp. 1357, 1428-30 (S.D.N.Y.1986) (district court declined to interpret 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1251(a)(6)(D) and denied declarative and injunctive relief where there was no evidence that the INS was considering deportation of aliens under that statute). Prudence thus counsels us to be chary of exercising jurisdiction in this uncharted arena. 29 The subject guiding principles are of uncertain application and unknown operation, see Socialist Labor Party v. Gilligan, 406 U.S. 583, 588-89, 92 S.Ct. 1716, 1719-20, 32 L.Ed.2d 317 (1972), and we lack the benefit of the INS's own interpretation to which we would wish to give substantial weight. Miller v. Youakim, 440 U.S. 125, 144, 99 S.Ct. 957, 968, 59 L.Ed.2d 194 (1979); cf. West Coast Truck Lines, Inc. v. American Industries, Inc., 893 F.2d 229, 233 (9th Cir.1990) (holding that agency's interpretation of the law is final and ripe for review). To exercise jurisdiction, in advance of action by the INS, might well propel us into contravening the basic rationale of the ripeness doctrine: the court would become entangled in an abstract disagreement over administrative policy and would interfere before any INS decision was made affecting the parties in any concrete way. Miller, 440 U.S. at 144, 99 S.Ct. at 968; see also FTC v. Standard Oil Co., 449 U.S. 232, 242, 101 S.Ct. 488, 494, 66 L.Ed.2d 416 (1980) (noting that judicial intervention after an agency has issued a complaint but before it has initiated proceedings denies the agency an opportunity to correct its own mistakes and to apply its expertise. Intervention also leads to piecemeal review which at the least is inefficient and upon completion of the agency process might prove to have been unnecessary (citation omitted)). 30 Finally, we believe that any hardship suffered by the individual appellees resulting from our decision to delay resolution of their claims does not amount to a justification for us to exercise jurisdiction. The individual appellees are not now charged under the challenged provisions. Moreover, if charged and found deportable for violation of the challenged provisions, the individual appellees will have the opportunity to present their constitutional challenges to a court. See Chadha v. INS, 634 F.2d 408 (9th Cir.1980), aff'd, 462 U.S. 919, 103 S.Ct. 2764, 77 L.Ed.2d 317 (1983). We therefore do not have a case in which delayed resolution of these issues would foreclose any relief from the present injury suffered by appellees. Duke Power Co. v. Carolina Envtl Study Group, Inc., 438 U.S. 59, 82, 98 S.Ct. 2620, 2635, 57 L.Ed.2d 595 (1978). Contrariwise, adequate procedures exist for the vindication of the individual appellees' claims. To exercise jurisdiction at this stage would thus be premature. See W.E.B. DuBois Clubs, 389 U.S. at 312, 88 S.Ct. at 452; see also Ruckleshaus v. Monsanto Co., 467 U.S. 986, 1019-20, 104 S.Ct. 2862, 2881-82, 81 L.Ed.2d 815 (1984). 31 In the absence of factual context upon which to rely in formulating a decision, the benefit of the INS's interpretation of the statute, its position with respect to the challenged provisions, or sufficient hardship to the individual appellees resulting from a refusal to exercise jurisdiction, we conclude that the issues here are simply not ripe for review. Thus, we find the [p]roblems of prematurity and abstractness ... present 'insuperable obstacles' to the exercise of ... jurisdiction, even though that jurisdiction is technically present. Gilligan, 406 U.S. at 588, 92 S.Ct. at 1719 (quoting Rescue Army v. Municipal Court, 331 U.S. 549, 574, 67 S.Ct. 1409, 1422, 91 L.Ed. 1666 (1947)).