Opinion ID: 411639
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Did Congress intend to bar Justice Department review?

Text: 46 Having concluded that the Department as required by the Hobbs Act otherwise has the essential attributes of a party aggrieved, we now consider intervenors' contention that the Attorney General provisions in sections 4 and 8 of the Act mean that Congress intended to preclude the Department from assuming the role of a petitioner for review. These provisions (quoted at p. 799 supra) provide (1) that the United States is a party respondent, (2) that notice of a petition for review shall be served upon the Attorney General, and (3) that the Attorney General has responsibility for and control of the Government's interests in any court proceedings under the Act. 47 Examining the language and structure of the Act, we note that it neither requires the Attorney General to defend agency orders nor precludes an independent agency defense. Section 8 provides that the agency may appear as a party ... of its own motion and of right, and that the Attorney General may not dispose of the proceeding for review over the objection of any party. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2348. We interpret this language to contemplate that the Department may choose to (1) defend the order, solely or in conjunction with the agency, 31 (2) remain completely passive, or (3) confess error, and attack the order, even though a statutory co-respondent. 32 In no instance is the agency left defenseless; the agency can always defend itself, as the Commission has done here. Thus, whatever theoretical difficulty may attend a petition brought by the Justice Department against the United States as a statutory respondent, we note no practical problem with an interpretation that the Hobbs Act in some circumstances entitles the Justice Department to seek review. 48 It is in fact the intervenors' view of the Hobbs Act that presents practical difficulty. If intervenors are correct, only parties with proprietary interests can seek review of a Maritime Commission order: the Attorney General could not challenge a Commission approval order that exceeded its statutory authority absent the fortuity that a proprietary party, with sufficient resources and a sufficient individual stake in the controversy, filed a petition for review. 33 We find no evidence of such an intent in the language or structure of the Act and will not impute to Congress the intent to achieve such result. 49 Intervenors, however, would take us beyond the Act's language to the legislative history of the Hobbs Act, which, they argue, makes clear that Congress was unswerving in its conviction that on petitions for review the role of the Department on behalf of the United States, was to defend the actions of the agencies. Brief of Intervenors Sea-Land Service, Inc. and Gulf/U.K. Conference at 4. Our reading of the legislative history compels the contrary conclusion: Congress was aware that the Justice Department on occasion had been and would be an adversary of the agency--both as a co-respondent and as a petitioner--and yet evinced no intent to preclude the Department from assuming that role. 50 The Hobbs Act is the third in a line of statutes to provide for judicial review of certain agency orders. 34 Its first progenitor, the Commerce Court (Mann-Elkins) Act of 1910, 36 Stat. 539, codified the right to seek judicial review of ICC orders. The Act placed the petition for review within the exclusive jurisdiction of a single tribunal, the Commerce Court, from whose judgment the aggrieved party could appeal directly to the Supreme Court. Id. Secs. 1, 2, 36 Stat. 540, 542. The Commerce Court was abolished in 1913 under the Urgent Deficiencies Act, 38 Stat. 219, which transferred the Commerce Court's subject matter jurisdiction to three-judge district courts from which the aggrieved party could, as before, appeal directly to the Supreme Court. Id. at 220. The Hobbs Act, 64 Stat. 1129 (1950), made two basic changes in this scheme: it placed the petition for review within the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of appeals; and it reduced the Supreme Court's appellate caseload by replacing appeals as of right in some instances with review upon writ of certiorari. 35 51 Important as these provisions are to an understanding of the background of the Hobbs Act, our focus here is on another set of provisions, whose substance has remained essentially the same since 1910. Those provisions concern the role of the Justice Department in the defense of agency orders. Prior to the Commerce Act, the ICC defended its own orders solely with its own counsel. 36 The Act modified this practice by providing that petitions for relief from ICC orders would be brought against the United States instead of the ICC, Commerce Act Secs. 3, 4, 36 Stat. 542, 543, and that a copy of the petition would be served upon not only the ICC but also the Department of Justice, id. Sec. 1, 36 Stat. 542. In connection with this change it was also provided that the Attorney General shall have charge and control of the interests of the Government in all cases and proceedings in the commerce court, and in the Supreme Court ... upon appeal from the commerce court.... Id. Sec. 5, 36 Stat. 543. The Urgent Deficiencies Act, although abolishing the Commerce Court, continued these provisions relating to the Attorney General in effect by providing that the procedures in the district courts ... shall be the same as that heretofore prevailing in the commerce court. 38 Stat. 220. The Attorney General provisions then reappeared in substantially their original form in sections 4 and 8 of the Hobbs Act, 64 Stat. 1129 (1950) (quoted at p. 10 supra), which were intended to retain the present law. H.R.Rep. No. 1619, 80th Cong., 2d Sess. 2 (1948). 52 In light of this historical development, intervenors contend that the rationales offered for the Attorney General provisions in 1910 are relevant to an interpretation of the corresponding provisions in the Hobbs Act, and that these rationales demonstrate Congress did not intend to permit the Department to attack an agency order in exercise of its law enforcement role. Those rationales were (1) an agency defending its own orders appears to create a conflict of interest between its role as an adjudicatory body and its role as a prosecutorial body, see S.Rep. No. 355, 61st Cong., 2d Sess. 6 (1910); and (2) the defense of ICC orders is a matter affecting the whole country, and the conduct of such matters should be vested where the conduct of all the legal affairs of Government is vested, namely, in the Department of Justice. Id. Accord, 45 Cong.Rec. 4574 (1910) (remarks of Congressman Mann). 37 53 According to intervenors, these rationales demonstrate that the Attorney General provisions of the Hobbs Act were meant merely to substitute the Justice Department for the ICC, and gave the Department no more rights than the agency into whose shoes it was placed. We have concluded, however, that the Department under the instant circumstances has the attributes of a party aggrieved under the Act. 38 In light of that conclusion, the question here is not whether Congress specifically intended to entitle the Department to seek review; as a party aggrieved the Department is presumptively so entitled. The question instead is whether Congress by enacting the Attorney General provisions intended to preclude the Department from seeking review. We have concluded that neither the language nor the structure of the statute supports an interpretation that challenging an agency order as a petitioner is irreconcilable with the Justice Department's role under the Hobbs Act and we find no persuasive evidence for a contrary interpretation in the legislative history. 54 Much of intervenors' purported support for their theory of the Hobbs Act consists of congressional colloquies between sponsors of the Commerce Court legislation and critics who wished to maintain the ICC's traditional right to defend its own orders. The former sought to assure the latter that placing the defense of agency orders under the control of the Justice Department would not compromise the integrity of such orders. One such colloquy ran as follows: 55 Mr. BRISTOW. Suppose that the commission should make an order and the railroad should attack it, do I understand that the Attorney-General would have the discretion as to whether or not he should defend that order? Suppose he believed that the order of the Commission was not justified? 56 Mr. ROOT. Mr. President. I will answer that without any hesitation or doubt. The Attorney-General would be bound upon all and the highest considerations of his professional honor and his official duty to defend the order of the Interstate Commerce Commission in all courts having jurisdiction to review it. 57 Mr. BRISTOW. Then, he would not have any supervisory authority as to whether or not it should be defended? 58 Mr. ROOT. Certainly not. It is his business to defend. He is no judge; he is no legislator; he is no reviewing authority. 59 45 Cong.Rec. 4104 (1910) (remarks of Senators Bristow and Root). Intervenors' reliance on this and similar exchanges is not persuasive inasmuch as the proposed statutory language to which those colloquies refer then read: 60 the Attorney-General shall have charge and control of the interests of the Government in all cases and proceedings in the court of commerce and in the Supreme Court of the United States upon appeal from the court of commerce. The Interstate Commerce Commission and its attorneys shall take no part in the conduct of any such litigation. 61 45 Cong.Rec. 7275 (1910) (emphasis added). Had this language been enacted, intervenors' point that the Justice Department cannot be on both sides of the same case would be well taken, for this language makes the Department the sole defender of an agency's order. But such is not the language of the statute. The bill was amended before passage to provide that the ICC shall receive notice of any commerce court action and may appear as a party of its own motion and as of right. See id. at 7276; Commerce Court Act Sec. 5, 36 Stat. 543. As amended and enacted, the bill--and the corresponding language in the present Hobbs Act--is consistent with an interpretation that permits the Justice Department and an agency to take inconsistent and even hostile positions on review of an agency order, for the agency has the right to take independent action in its own interest. 62 Intervenors also rely on the testimony of Judge Orie L. Phillips in the congressional hearings on bills incorporating the language that eventually became the Hobbs Act. Judge Phillips represented the members of the Judicial Conference who prepared the Act's original draft. He testified that its chief controversy concerned whether the law should be changed to make the agency the party respondent (with the Department intervening as of right) or whether the law should retain the practice of making the United States the party respondent (with the agency intervening as of right). The testimony from which intervenors cull extracts is as follows: 39 63 MR. WALTER [doubting whether the Attorney General should have the power to control the agency's defense]. 64 .... 65 ... Have you thought of the possibility that the Maritime Commission, for example, would insist on an appeal where the Attorney General might be fearful that, if the case is decided in accordance with what he believes the law will be, it might very seriously affect another case involving the Communications Commission that the Attorney General is about to take to the Supreme Court [?]. 66 JUDGE PHILLIPS. Mr. Walter, these cases under these acts are not cases brought by the United States. They are petitions to review. 67 MR. WALTER. I understand. 68 MR. PHILLIPS. An order which has adversely affected a private litigant. The private litigant files the petition for review. Then the question comes in, shall we defend the agency's order. [In the vast majority of cases, in substantially all the cases, I would say, the Department of Justice and counsel for the agency will be together. There are rare instances, and that is the history of the litigation, where the agency took one view, the Attorney General took another view. It ultimately had to be determined by the Supreme Court. In a number of those instances, four or five, the views of the agency were sustained, and the views of the Attorney General did not prevail. I think the agency should have that protection.] 69 The Attorney General has not asked for anything further than to preserve the existing law in his amendment. I understand that satisfied him, and I think it should. 70 Providing for the Review of Orders of Certain Agencies: Hearings on H.R. 2915, 2916 Before Subcomm. No. 2 of the House Comm. on the Judiciary, 81st Cong., 1st Sess. 118 (1949) (emphasis added). 40 71 Intervenors would have us construe this passage to mean that, as far as the Judicial Conference was concerned, the Department's role was solely to defend agency orders and there was no intent to permit the Attorney General himself to petition for review of an agency order. Viewed in context, the testimony indicates otherwise. The question put to Judge Phillips concerned the situation where there was disagreement between the Department and the agency as to whether to seek certiorari from the Supreme Court. The question thus assumed the Department and the agency were already on the same side of the case. Judge Phillips' comment that these cases ... are not cases brought by the United States naturally follows. Judge Phillips was not saying that the Department and the agency would never be antagonists on appeal from an agency order. Indeed, as indicated by the testimony we have placed in brackets above, Judge Phillips expressly contemplated that the Department and an agency, although nominal co-respondents, may take differing viewpoints, and each may present its own viewpoint to the court. 72 Judge Phillips made his understanding of the Department's role under the Hobbs Act even more clear in other testimony that intervenors also ignore. Judge Phillips spoke of the situation in which the Department thought the agency's position was wrong: 73 JUDGE PHILLIPS .... I do not think that it is incumbent upon the Attorney General to remain silent. He may say to the court of appeals--he may say to the Supreme Court--I think the law is this way; I think the position taken by the Commission is wrong. 74 But, likewise, the Commission through its counsel may say we think the Attorney General is wrong; we think the law is this way; we think the case should be decided this way for these reasons. 75 MR. WALTER. Do you think it is wise to find ourselves in a position where two agencies of the Government are taking an opposite position in the court of last resort? 76 JUDGE PHILLIPS. I do. And I think history demonstrates it is wise. In a number of instances the Department of Justice and the Interstate Commerce Commission have differed as to their views, and the views of the Interstate Commerce Commission have prevailed in the Supreme Court of the United States. 77 MR. KEATING. Is it not a fact that the interest of the Commission in sustaining its own order, and the interests of the Attorney General in representing, as he sees it, the United States of America, are sometimes in conflict? 78