Opinion ID: 565995
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Appellees' Arbitrary and Capricious Claim

Text: 41 In addition to their statutory arguments, appellees also challenged the redistricting regulation before the district court on the ground that LSC acted arbitrarily and capriciously in promulgating it. The district court denied LSC's motion for dismissal or for summary judgment on the latter claim in light of its resolution of the statutory issues in favor of appellees. Because we reverse the district court's holding on the statutory issues, we must address two arguments LSC makes concerning the arbitrary and capricious claim. First, LSC asks this court to reverse the district court's denial of its motion, arguing that judicial review is unavailable for this claim. Alternatively, LSC urges us to reject appellees' claim on the merits. We decline both invitations. 42 The Act exempts LSC from the requirements of the APA by providing that LSC is not an agency, department, or instrumentality of the federal government. See LSCA Sec. 1005(e), 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2996d(e); Spokane County Legal Services, 614 F.2d at 669. This in itself, however, does not mean that LSC's actions are shielded from judicial review. As discussed at length above, LSC is invested with broad administrative authority to carry out the terms of a federal statute; for that reason, its actions must be treated as those of a public rather than a private actor. Furthermore, although Congress clearly meant to insulate LSC from the vagaries of political pressure by making it an independent corporation rather than a federal agency, we can find nothing in the Act or the legislative history to suggest that it meant to insulate LSC's actions from judicial review. See, e.g., Armstrong v. Bush, 924 F.2d 282, 291 (D.C.Cir.1991) (absent clear and convincing evidence of contrary congressional intent, there is a presumption in favor of judicial review of administrative action) (relying on Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U.S. 136, 141, 87 S.Ct. 1507, 1511, 18 L.Ed.2d 681 (1967)). Appellees point to a passage in the House Report accompanying the 1977 amendments to the Act stating that LSC is accountable directly and only to the Congress under the Act, but this statement, when read in context, clearly refers only to Congress's concern to protect the Corporation from inappropriate control by the Executive Branch. H.R. REP. No. 310, 95th Cong., 1st Sess. 6, reprinted in 1977 U.S. CODE CONG. & ADMIN.NEWS 4503, 4508. It simply does not address the issue of judicial review of LSC action. SeeArmstrong v. Bush, 924 F.2d at 291-92 (Congress's intent to retain oversight over compliance with Federal Records Act insufficient to infer intent to preclude judicial review). 43 We therefore conclude, along with every other court that has addressed the issue, that LSC's substantive policy decisions, although exempt from the APA, are subject to the pre-APA requirement that administrative decisions be rationally based--a standard that courts have held is equivalent to the APA's requirement that agency action not be arbitrary or capricious. See, e.g., Spokane County Legal Services, 614 F.2d at 669 & n. 11; National Clearinghouse for Legal Services, Inc. v. Legal Services Corp., 674 F.Supp. 37, 40 & nn. 7-8 (D.D.C.1987), aff'd mem., 861 F.2d 303 (D.C.Cir.1988); National Center for Youth Law v. Legal Services Corp., 749 F.Supp. 1013, 1016 (N.D.Cal.1990). See also State Farm, 463 U.S. at 42-43, 103 S.Ct. at 2866-67 (equating arbitrary and capricious standard with rationality review); San Juan Legal Services, Inc. v. Legal Services Corp., 655 F.2d 434, 439 (1st Cir.1981) (declining to specify appropriate standard but apparently assuming that action must at least be rational). 44 LSC's alternative argument, that this court should reject appellees' arbitrary and capricious claim on the merits, calls on us to exercise our discretion to rule on an issue not addressed by the district court. Although [i]t is the general rule ... that a federal appellate court does not consider an issue not passed upon below, Singleton v. Wulff, 428 U.S. 106, 120, 96 S.Ct. 2868, 2877, 49 L.Ed.2d 826 (1976), [t]he matter of what questions may be taken up and resolved for the first time on appeal is one left primarily to the discretion of the courts of appeals, to be exercised on the facts of individual cases. Id. at 121, 96 S.Ct. at 2877. We have stated that in exercising this discretion we will look to factors such as whether the issue in question has been fully briefed by the parties and whether decision of the issue would be aided by the development of a factual record in the district court. See Grace v. Burger, 665 F.2d 1193, 1197 n. 9 (D.C.Cir.1981), aff'd in part and vacated in part on other grounds sub nom. United States v. Grace, 461 U.S. 171, 103 S.Ct. 1702, 75 L.Ed.2d 736 (1983). 45 In this case, we find the absence of any substantive briefing on the issue dispositive. LSC, the party urging us to reach the issue, contented itself with conclusory assertions in its opening and reply briefs that adoption of the regulation was not arbitrary or capricious because redistricting is an inherently political matter of little peculiar relevance to the legal problems of the poor. Appellees did not address the merits of the claim at all, urging only that we remand the claim for discovery and factfinding in the district court. This court normally will not address claims raised in such a cursory fashion. See, e.g., Railway Labor Executives' Ass'n v. United States Railroad Retirement Bd., 749 F.2d 856, 859 n. 6 (D.C.Cir.1984) (declining to reach issue on the basis of briefing which consisted of only three sentences in [petitioner's] brief and no discussion of the relevant statutory text, legislative history, or relevant case law); Carducci v. Regan, 714 F.2d 171, 177 (D.C.Cir.1983); Alabama Power Co. v. Gorsuch, 672 F.2d 1, 7 & n. 34 (D.C.Cir.1982) (collecting cases). As indicated above, this is especially true where, as here, the issue was not passed upon below. 46 Although we agree with appellees that their arbitrary and capricious claim should be remanded for a full airing in the district court, we decline to hold that they are entitled to discovery upon remand. Ordinarily, judicial review of informal agency rule-making is confined to the administrative record; neither party is entitled to supplement that record with litigation affidavits or other evidentiary material that was not before the agency. Edison Electric Institute v. OSHA, 849 F.2d 611, 617-18 (D.C.Cir.1988) (relying on Camp v. Pitts, 411 U.S. 138, 142, 93 S.Ct. 1241, 1244, 36 L.Ed.2d 106 (1973)). See also Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe, 401 U.S. 402, 415, 91 S.Ct. 814, 823, 28 L.Ed.2d 136 (1971); Environmental Defense Fund v. Costle, 657 F.2d 275, 284-85 (D.C.Cir.1981). The general principle that informal agency action must be reviewed on the administrative record predates the APA and therefore applies with equal force to actions taken by LSC. See, e.g., Federal Security Administrator v. Quaker Oats Co., 318 U.S. 218, 227-28, 63 S.Ct. 589, 594-95, 87 L.Ed. 724 (1943); National Broadcasting Co. v. United States, 319 U.S. 190, 227, 63 S.Ct. 997, 1014, 87 L.Ed. 1344 (1943); Rochester Telephone Corp. v. United States, 307 U.S. 125, 145-46, 59 S.Ct. 754, 764-65, 83 L.Ed. 1147 (1939); United States v. Morgan, 313 U.S. 409, 421-22, 61 S.Ct. 999, 1004-05, 85 L.Ed. 1429 (1941) (mental processes of decisionmaker not normally discoverable). See also Holloway v. Railroad Retirement Bd., 44 F.Supp. 59 (N.D.Ga.1942) (collecting cases). On remand, therefore, discovery should not be permitted on appellees' arbitrary and capricious claim unless they can demonstrate unusual circumstances justifying a departure from this general rule. See Environmental Defense Fund v. Costle, 657 F.2d at 285 (surveying limited exceptions to rule against non-record evidence); Natural Resources Defense Council v. Train, 519 F.2d 287, 292 (D.C.Cir.1975) (permitting limited discovery in certain circumstances to ensure that [no] documents which are properly part of the administrative record have been withheld).