Opinion ID: 255137
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Rourth Amendment.

Text: 49 The Board's order does not state the purpose for which the information is demanded. For this reason, among others, petitioners contend that the order violates the Fourth Amendment. 12 50 Although earlier limitations on the investigatory powers of administrative agencies have been relaxed in recent years, 13 the Supreme Court has informed us that 'a governmental investigation into corporate matters may be of such a sweeping nature and so unrelated to the matter properly under inquiry as to exceed the investigatory power.    But it is sufficient if the inquiry is within the authority of the agency, the demand is not too indefinite and the information sought is reasonably relevant. 'The gist of the protection is in the requirement, expressed in terms, that the disclosure sought shall not be unreasonable.' Oklahoma Press Publishing Co. v. Walling, 327 U.S. 186, 208 (66 S.Ct. 494, 505, 90 L.Ed. 614, 166 A.L.R. 531).' United States v. Morton Salt Co., 1950, 338 U.S. 632, 652-653, 70 S.Ct. 357, 369, 94 L.Ed. 401. 51 What is 'reasonably relevant' depends on the purpose and nature of the investigation undertaken by the agency. 'Relevancy and adequacy or excess in the breadth of the subpoena are matters variable in relation to the nature, purposes and scope of the inquiry.' Oklahoma Press Pub. Co. v. Walling, 1946, 327 U.S. 186, 209, 66 S.Ct. 494, 506, 90 L.Ed. 614. And as Professor Davis has pointed out, 'the breadth of a subpena or of a search made in records may be excessive, but the test is relevance to the specific purpose, and the purpose is determined by the investigators.' 1 Davis, Administrative Law Treatise 3.06 (1958). Consequently, the Board's failure in the instant case to state its purpose in requiring the information demanded precluded a determination of relevancy. 52 Respondents, relying on Mortion Salt, contend that no detailed specification of purpose is necessary when an agency is investigating 'merely on suspicion that the law is being violated, or even    because it wants assurance that it is not.' 14 If this order is pursuant to such an investigation, a matter which the Board contends in its brief but which does not appear from the face of the order, it might be argued that a detailed specification at this stage of 'initial inquiry' may not be feasibly required. Whatever may be the validity of that argument, we think it cannot excuse the absence of any indication whatsoever, as in the instant order, of the investigation's purpose since no basis is thereby afforded for determining the relevancy of the information demanded. And just as the reasons underlying agency action must appear from the agency's order, so too we think that the statement of purpose must be apparent from the order itself and cannot be supplied by contentions in the briefs. 53 In any event, the language in Morton Salt upon which the Government relies was not directed to the matter of purpose and relevancy, but rather to the issue of whether the Federal Trade Commission had power to compel reports absent 'probable cause' to believe that the law was being violated. 54 The Government also points to Isbrandtsen-Moller Co. v. United States, supra; and Bowles v. Northwest Poultry & Dairy Products Co., 9 Cir., 1946, 153 F.2d 32, for the proposition that statements of purpose are unnecessary. In Isbrandtsen-Moller which, like the instant case, involved an investigatory order information as to the rates 55 'It appearing, That full and complete information as to the rates with the transportation of certain property from continental United States to points in foreign countries by carriers by water in foreign commerce subject to the Shipping Act, 1916, is necessary to the proper administration of the regulatory provisions of said act   . 15 ' 56 This order, stating the subject of the investigation to be rates and charges, provided a standard for determining the relevancy of the documents demanded. Similarly, the order involved in Northwest Poultry contained a sufficient statement of purpose and relevancy since the records there required were needed in order to determine whether the corporation had complied with a particular Regional Price Order under the Emergency Price Control Act. 57 Since the reasonableness of the order under review is dependent upon the relevancy of the information demanded, and that cannot be determined in the absence of a statement of purpose, the order is fatally defective. Because petitioners' contentions regarding the breadth and the vagueness of the order are in part dependent upon the question of relevancy, we find it unnecessary to presently deal with them. The order under review is vacated and the case remanded to the Board for proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. 58