Opinion ID: 440507
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Modified Record of Decision

Text: 12 Appellants take issue with the district court's inclusion of the Modified Record of Decision (MROD) as a part of the administrative record on review. Characterizing the MROD as an impermissible post hoc rationalization of an agency decision, made in response to litigation, appellants contend that consideration of the MROD was improper. See Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe, 401 U.S. 402, 420, 91 S.Ct. 814, 825, 28 L.Ed.2d 136 (1971); accord Camp v. Pitts, 411 U.S. 138, 142, 93 S.Ct. 1241, 1244, 36 L.Ed.2d 106 (1973) (per curiam). We disagree. 13 Agency actions are reviewed by examining the administrative record at the time the agency made its decision. Overton Park, 401 U.S. at 419-420, 91 S.Ct. at 825. Agency documents prepared during and in response to litigation are generally excluded from this review. Id.; accord ASARCO, Inc. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 616 F.2d 1153, 1158-61 (9th Cir.1980). 14 The general rule prohibiting post hoc rationalizations is not without exceptions. In Overton Park, the Supreme Court expressly authorized the trial court to allow the Secretary of Transportation to prepare formal findings in order to provide an adequate explanation for his action which the court could then review. 401 U.S. at 420, 91 S.Ct. at 826. The Ninth Circuit has also addressed the scope of the district court's review of an agency decision, adopting the more enlightened approach which permits explanation of agency decision-making. ASARCO, 616 F.2d at 1159. In ASARCO, we held that [a] satisfactory explanation of agency action is essential for adequate judicial review, because the focus of judicial review is ... on whether the process employed by the agency to reach its decision took into consideration all the relevant factors. Id.; accord Overton Park, 401 U.S. at 410, 91 S.Ct. at 820; Bunker Hill Co. v. Environmental Protection Agency, 572 F.2d 1286, 1289 (9th Cir.1977). The court limited the purposes for which information outside the administrative record may be considered to use as background information and for ascertaining whether the agency considered all the relevant factors or fully explicated its course of conduct or grounds of decision. ASARCO, 616 F.2d at 1160. Finally, the court observed that additional information should be explanatory in nature, rather than a new rationalization of the agency's decision, and must be sustained by the record. Id. at 1159-60. 15 In the instant matter, the district court noted that without the [MROD], the record before this court will 'not disclose the factors that the Director considered or [his] construction of the evidence.'  CR 111 (citing Overton Park, id. 401 U.S. at 419-20, 91 S.Ct. at 825). It appears that without benefit of the explanation of agency action set forth in the MROD, the trial court would be prevented from determining whether the agency action was within the scope of its authority. We find, therefore, that the inclusion of the MROD in the district court's review was both permissible and necessary.