Opinion ID: 424012
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: penalty enhancement

Text: 14 Relying upon the rationale of North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 724, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 2080, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969) (the imposition of a penalty upon the defendant for having successfully pursued a statutory right of appeal ... would be ... a violation of due process of law), respondent Thornton maintains that the Judicial Officer's enhancement of his penalty to include a one year disqualification violates his fifth amendment right to due process. He reasons that the severe sanction of disqualification is punitive rather than remedial and, because it could not have been imposed upon him had he not exercised his right of appeal, that the disqualification is actually a punishment for having appealed. 15 We are not persuaded by respondent's argument. To the extent that the disqualification is punitive, it is punishment for the offense of soring and not for the appeal. Under section 8(a) of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 557(b), On appeal from or review of the initial decision, the agency has all the powers which it would have in making the initial decision. As the ninth circuit recognized in Containerfreight Transport Co. v. ICC, 651 F.2d 668, 670 (9th Cir.1981), the review provision of the Administrative Procedure Act authorizes the agency to decide all issues de novo. The review is actually a species of retrial. The Supreme Court recognized in North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. at 723, 89 S.Ct. at 2079 that a judge is not constitutionally precluded ... from imposing a new sentence, whether greater or less than the original sentence upon such a retrial. The only constitutional limitation upon this right is that any penalty already suffered prior to retrial must be credited towards the subsequent sentence so that the actual penalty imposed does not exceed the maximum limits for a single commission of the offense. Id. at 718, 89 S.Ct. at 2077. No such constitutional violation was committed in this case. The disqualification provision is supplementary to, not an alternative for, the imposition of a fine. 15 U.S.C. § 1825(c). It was lawfully imposed by the Judicial Officer. 16 AFFIRMED.