Opinion ID: 1236389
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Municipal Plaintiffs and Rest Haven: FAA Claims

Text: The district court also found that it lacked jurisdiction to review the Municipal Plaintiffs' and Rest Haven's claims against the FAA because these claims fell within the exclusive jurisdiction of the court of appeals under 49 U.S.C. § 46110. After dismissing Rest Haven from the litigation, the district court decided that it lacked jurisdiction to review the claims against the FAA that related to the issuance of the ROD. Because Rest Haven was not a party to this complaint, it has no personal stake in the appeal of the district court's denial of St. John's and the Municipal Plaintiffs' motion for leave to file a second amended complaint on this ground. See, e.g., Freedom from Religion Foundation, Inc. v. Bugher, 249 F.3d 606, 609 (7th Cir.2001) (Under Article III, only a plaintiff with a personal stake in a case or controversy has standing.). Even if Rest Haven were a party to the second amended complaint and its claims were not moot, the district court would still lack jurisdiction to review either Rest Haven's or the Municipal Plaintiffs' claims against the FAA. The jurisdictional language in 49 U.S.C. § 46110 could not be plainer. It says that a person disclosing a substantial interest in an order issued by . . . the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration with respect to aviation duties and powers designated to be carried out by the Administrator . . . in whole or in part under this part [or] part B . . . may apply for review of the order by filing a petition for review in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit or in the court of appeals of the United States for the circuit in which the person resides or has its principal place of business. 49 U.S.C. § 46110(a). Part B refers to the Airport Development and Noise provisions of the same subtitle, see 49 U.S.C. § 47107, et seq., which include the provision that grants the FAA the authority to review airport layout plans. See 49 U.S.C. § 47107(a)(16). The statute goes on to provide that the court of appeals has exclusive jurisdiction to affirm, amend, modify or set aside any part of the order. 49 U.S.C. § 46110(a). The Plaintiffs' arguments urging that the district court had the authority to consider these claims are without merit. First, Rest Haven argues that the federal RFRA, which Rest Haven claims the FAA has violated, commands that contested issues of fact pertaining to violations of that statute be tried in the federal district court. In support of this claim, they cite § 2000bb-1(c) of the Act, which provides that a person alleging a violation of RFRA may assert that violation as a claim or defense in a judicial proceeding and that standing to assert such a claim is governed by . . . article III of the Constitution. Plaintiffs urge that this language means that they are entitled to an Article III proceeding in which to resolve disputed issues of fact. Even assuming that Rest Haven's claims are not moot, however, the statute says nothing about exclusive jurisdiction of district courts to find facts in RFRA cases. Review of an agency action in the court of appeals surely qualifies as an Article III judicial proceeding. Nothing in RFRA purported to repeal the authority of federal administrative agencies to find facts, subject to review by the courts of appeals; there was no silent elimination of the judicial review provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act. See 5 U.S.C. § 706. Furthermore, the fact that Rest Haven's claims against the FAA include allegations that the FAA violated the Constitution does not allow it to bypass the administrative process because [t]he effect would be that important and difficult constitutional issues would be decided devoid of factual content. Gaunce v. DeVincentis, 708 F.2d 1290, 1293 (7th Cir.1983) (holding that exclusive jurisdiction rested in the court of appeals in a case in which a pilot challenged an FAA order revoking her flight certificate on due process grounds); see also Thunder Basin Coal Co. v. Reich, 510 U.S. 200, 215-16, 114 S.Ct. 771, 127 L.Ed.2d 29 (1994) (indicating that while the [a]djudication of the constitutionality of congressional enactments has generally been thought beyond the jurisdiction of administrative agencies, such a rule is not mandatory, particularly when a plaintiff's statutory and constitutional claims can meaningfully be addressed in the Court of Appeals) (internal citations omitted). As further support for their argument that their claims against the FAA should be heard by the federal district court, both Rest Haven and the Municipal Plaintiffs contend that the misconduct of various FAA administrators made it impossible to develop the type of factual record necessary for meaningful appellate review. The Plaintiffs charge that the FAA has developed a compensation program that provides monetary rewards for FAA officials who make decisions that allow the construction of new runway projects; that former Chicago employees (who had worked on previous O'Hare expansion projects) are currently FAA officials and employees; and that these administrators withheld thousands of documents that are not a part of the appellate record. Without the ability to present their claims to the district court, they fear, they will be stuck with the outcome of these tainted proceedings. Appellate courts, however, are certainly competent to hear a party's argument that there were flaws in due process at the agency level and remand the case to the agency with instructions to correct these problems. Additionally, any plaintiff can make an argument to the court of appeals that there were problems with the creation of the record before the administrative agency and thus in the record on appeal. See FCC v. ITT World Commc'ns, Inc., 466 U.S. 463, 468-69, 104 S.Ct. 1936, 80 L.Ed.2d 480 (1984) (If, however, the Court of Appeals finds that the administrative record is inadequate, it may remand to the agency, see Harrison v. PPG Indus., Inc., 446 U.S. 578, 593-94, 100 S.Ct. 1889, 64 L.Ed.2d 525 (1980), or in some circumstances refer the case to a special master, see 28 U.S.C. § 2347(b)(3).). In fact, Plaintiffs made these arguments before the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which rejected them. See Bensenville, 457 F.3d at 72-73. Lastly, Plaintiffs argue that the district court at least has jurisdiction over their NEPA claims, pursuant to 40 C.F.R. § 1506.1. That regulation provides that [u]ntil an agency issues a record of decision. . . no action concerning the proposal shall be taken which would [h]ave an adverse environmental impact; or [l]imit the choice of reasonable alternatives. According to Plaintiffs, the FAA has not made a substantive funding decision about the disposition of certain passenger facility charges (PFC) that amount to more than one billion dollars. This is money that the City needs to facilitate Phase One of the OMP. Without the federal money, the City cannot proceed with the implementation of Phase One, which includes the acquisition of land from the Municipal Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs argue that the City is attempting to subvert the requirements of NEPA by adhering to a policy of destruction before decision, in disregard of this court's ruling in Old Town Neighborhood Ass'n v. Kauffman, 333 F.3d 732 (7th Cir.2003), disapproving such a strategy. The district court decided that it had no jurisdiction over this claim either. Perhaps because events continue to unfold, the Plaintiffs' argument in this respect seems to have unraveled. The regulation to which Plaintiffs refer prohibits action in the absence of an agency's issuance of a ROD. Here, though, the ROD and the accompanying EIS have been issued. More than that, in an agreed order between these parties, the City stipulated that it [would] not acquire property in the Village of Bensenville and Elk Grove Village for the OMP, or acquire the Rest Haven or St. Johannes Cemeteries, unless and until the FAA has issued a Record of Decision following completion of an EIS for the OMP. At oral argument the FAA directed the Court's attention to § 12.3 of the ROD where the FAA made specific factual findings on the airport layout plan's effect on natural resources, in compliance with 49 U.S.C. § 47106(c)(1)(B). Plaintiffs contend that this does not do the job, because while environmental findings have been made with respect to the airport layout plan, those findings did not focus on the specific project for which the City is seeking fundingthe Phase One Project. Based on our reading of the record, however, the Phase One Project is a part of the airport layout plan for which the City has received FAA approval. Furthermore, the regulation does not prohibit action until the FAA has made all decisions with respect to funding; it says only that no action can be taken before the issuance of the ROD, which we now have. If these Plaintiffs wanted to challenge the environmental findings made by the FAA, they certainly could have included those claims in the petition for review of the ROD that they filed in the D.C. Circuit. This shows Plaintiffs' NEPA challenge for what it is: a matter so intertwined with the ROD that it falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the court of appeals. If we needed further reassurance on the point, we have it in the fact that Plaintiffs actually made the identical argument about NEPA compliance in their presentation to the D.C. Circuit. There, they argued that the FAA violated NEPA by issuing a ROD that approved of the airport layout plan without making any formal funding decisions. Before the district court and on appeal here, they argue that the FAA is violating NEPA by allowing the City to proceed with the acquisition of property in these villages before a funding decision has been made. Even if we did not think that this issue was under the court of appeals' exclusive jurisdiction, we do not think it wise to allow either the Municipal Plaintiffs or Rest Haven to litigate the same issues, either concurrently or seriatim, in separate federal courts.