Opinion ID: 599279
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Remedy to Which the Environmental Groups are Entitled

Text: 51 A. Effective Judicial Review Requires Supplementation of the Record if Improper Ex Parte Communications Occurred. 52 The government and the lands coalition contend that we ought to deny the environmental groups' discovery requests because of the familiar maxim that courts should review an agency decision on the basis of the record before the agency. See, e.g., Federal Power Comm'n v. Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp., 423 U.S. 326, 331, 96 S.Ct. 579, 582, 46 L.Ed.2d 533 (1976). They argue that later supplementation of the record is disfavored. Id. The government insists that supplementation is not warranted here and that the requirement that the Committee's decision be supported by the record ensures it will be appropriately reasoned and subject to full judicial review. The lands coalition maintains that the discovery the environmental groups seek would impermissibly inquire into the mental processes of Committee members. 53 We find each of these arguments to be wholly unpersuasive. Section 706 of the APA provides that judicial review of agency action shall be based on the whole record. The whole record includes everything that was before the agency pertaining to the merits of its decision. Thompson v. United States Dep't of Labor, 885 F.2d 551, 555-56 (9th Cir.1989). An incomplete record must be viewed as a fictional account of the actual decisionmaking process. Home Box Office, Inc. v. Federal Communications Comm'n, 567 F.2d 9, 54 (D.C.Cir.1977). When it appears the agency has relied on documents or materials not included in the record, supplementation is appropriate. Public Power Council v. Johnson, 674 F.2d 791, 794 (9th Cir.1982). The government relies on cases denying supplementation of the record with information on the merits that was never presented to the agency. See, e.g., Federal Power Comm'n v. Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp., 423 U.S. 326, 96 S.Ct. 579, 46 L.Ed.2d 533 (1976); Walter O. Boswell Memorial Hospital v. Heckler, 749 F.2d 788 (D.C.Cir.1984). Here, however, the material the environmental groups seek to have included in the record is material that allegedly was before the agency. Therefore, supplementation is proper. See, e.g., PATCO v. FLRA I, 672 F.2d at 112-13 (record must be supplemented with undisclosed ex parte communications); Bethlehem Steel Corp. v. Environmental Protection Agency, 638 F.2d 994, 999-1000 (7th Cir.1980) (supplementation should be allowed where documents related to improper ex parte communications); see also Grolier, Inc. v. Federal Trade Comm'n, 615 F.2d 1215 (9th Cir.1980) (where ALJ had worked as staff attorney for FTC Commissioner during relevant time period, discovery regarding alleged improper contacts allowed). 54 If the record is not complete, then the requirement that the agency decision be supported by the record becomes almost meaningless. See HBO v. FCC, 567 F.2d at 54. Indeed, where the so-called record looks complete on its face and appears to support the decision of the agency but there is a subsequent showing of impropriety in the process, that impropriety creates an appearance of irregularity which the agency must then show to be harmless. See Buschmann v. Schweiker, 676 F.2d 352, 358 (9th Cir.1982); Marathon Oil Co. v. Environmental Protection Agency, 564 F.2d 1253, 1271-72 (9th Cir.1977). 55 The government argues that our decision regarding supplementation in this case should be controlled by language in Costle that disclosure of ex parte contacts to a reviewing court was not necessary because any rule issued must have the requisite factual support in the rulemaking record. 657 F.2d at 407 (emphasis in original). As we noted above, Costle is a case involving informal rulemaking. The Costle court made clear that its comments applied only to that type of rulemaking. Id. at 407-08. However, the court stated that the docketing of conversations in the record between the President and other Executive Branch officers may be necessary to ensure due process where, for example, such conversations directly concern the outcome of adjudications or quasi-adjudicatory proceedings; there is no inherent executive power to control the rights of individuals in such settings. Id. at 407 & n. 527 (citing Myers). Therefore, Costle militates in favor of rather than against supplementation of the record here. 56 The government's reliance on San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace v. United States Nuclear Regulatory Comm'n, 751 F.2d 1287 (D.C.Cir.1984), vacated in part, 760 F.2d 1320, 1321 (D.C.Cir.1985) (en banc), is also unavailing. There, the petitioners moved to supplement the record with predecisional transcripts and related documents from a meeting of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Unlike the documents requested in Mothers for Peace, those sought here concern neither the internal deliberative processes of the agency nor the mental processes of individual agency members. Rather, the discovery requested here involves allegedly improper ex parte contacts between decisionmakers and outside parties. If such ex parte communications occurred, then the record must be supplemented to include those contacts so that proper judicial review may be conducted. 57 B. A Remand to the Committee for an Evidentiary Hearing Rather than Discovery is Appropriate under the Circumstances. 58 The government contends that if we determine there is a need to supplement the record, we should remand to the Committee rather than permit discovery. The environmental groups admit that a limited and expedited remand could achieve the same results as appellate court discovery proceedings, although they maintain that the instant situation is sufficiently compelling to warrant that type of discovery under the authority of Public Power Council, 674 F.2d at 794-95. 28 59 We believe that the better course here is to order a remand for a vigorous and thorough adversarial, evidentiary hearing of the sort described in PATCO v. FLRA I, 672 F.2d at 113; see also North Carolina Envtl. Policy Inst., 881 F.2d at 1258. We granted discovery in Public Power Council because of the unusual combination of: (1) the novelty of the issues presented; (2) the need for extremely prompt action under the pertinent statute; and (3) the significance of the questions presented in the petition for review. While the third factor at least is met here, the second is not. Challenges to actions under the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act involve streamlined judicial review to facilitate the exceptionally swift action the statute requires. Public Power Council, 674 F.2d at 794. See also 9th Cir.R. 15-2: Procedures for Review Under Pacific Northwest Electric Power and Planning Act. In the present case, at the time of oral argument there was an injunction in place preventing execution of the timber sales in dispute. None of the parties has advised us of any change in the status of that injunction. Thus, there is no particular need for extremely prompt action on our part. See Public Power Council, 674 F.2d at 794. The purposes of the Endangered Species Act will not be frustrated or imperiled if we permit an administrative resolution of the factual questions that are essential to determining whether the whole agency record has been compiled, and whether the APA has been violated. 60 Accordingly, in line with PATCO v. FLRA I, we issue the order filed concurrently herewith directing the Committee to hold, with the aid of a specially appointed administrative law judge, an evidentiary hearing to determine the nature, content, extent, source, and effect of any ex parte communications that may have transpired between any member of the Committee or its staff and the President or any member of his staff regarding the determination of the exemption application at issue. All interested parties will be allowed to participate in the hearing, personally, or by counsel. Nothing in this opinion should be construed as foreclosing the ALJ from enlisting the full panoply of available means to determine the merits of the allegations the environmental groups assert. 61 Following the hearing, the ALJ will request that all interested parties submit proposed findings. When these findings are received, the ALJ will submit the record of the hearing and all proposed findings, as well as the ALJ's own findings and recommendations, to the parties and to the Clerk of the Court. The parties will then advise the court what further proceedings, if any, should, in their opinion, be held, either before the Committee or this court. This panel will retain jurisdiction over this matter pending further order of the court.