Opinion ID: 445428
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Interlocutory Review

Text: 11 It should be noted that normally the most efficient means of reviewing agency action is to wait until the relevant agency proceedings have concluded. This is related to the general judicial doctrine of ripeness, as well as notions of effective agency administration. In Abbott Laboratories, Inc. v. Gardner 15 the Supreme Court explained that the 12 basic rationale is to prevent the courts, through avoidance of premature adjudication, from entangling themselves in abstract disagreements over administrative policies, and also to protect the agencies from judicial interference until an administrative decision has been formalized and its effects felt in a concrete way by challenging parties. The problem is best seen in a twofold aspect, requiring us to evaluate both the fitness of the issues for judicial decision and the hardship to the parties of withholding court consideration. 16 13 As this Court explained in Association of Nat'l Advertisers, Inc. v. FTC, 17 withholding review until after final agency action permits an administrative agency to develop a factual record, to apply its expertise to that record, and to avoid piecemeal appeals. 18 14 Despite this general policy, claims of unreasonable delay fall within a narrow class of interlocutory appeals from agency action over which we appropriately should exercise our jurisdiction. By definition, a claim of unreasonable delay cannot await final agency action before judicial review, since it is the very lack of agency action which gives rise to the complaint. It is also obvious that the benefits of agency expertise and creation of a record will not be realized if the agency never takes action. In addition, judicial review of claims of unreasonable delay do not prematurely inject the courts into the agency's consideration of the merits of the issue before it. Finally, agencies operate under a mandate to decide matters in a reasonable time, 19 and Congress has instructed statutory review courts to compel agency action which has been unreasonably delayed. 20