Court Opinion

ID: 9419456
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:49:34.631947+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:18.221741
License: Public Domain

Me. Justice Frankfuetee',
dissenting:
The immediate issue before us is whether these plaintiffs, milk producers, can in the circumstances of this case go to court to complain of an order by the Secretary of Agriculture fixing rates for the distribution of milk within the Greater Boston marketing area. The solution of that question depends, however, upon a proper approach toward such a scheme of legislation as that formulated by Congress in the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937.
Apart from legislation touching the revenue, the public domain, national banks and patents, not until the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 did Congress begin to place economic enterprise under systems of administrative control. These regulatory schemes have varied in the range *312of control exercised by government; they have varied no less in the procedures by which the control was exercised. More particularly, these regimes of national authority over private enterprise reveal great diversity in the allotment of power by Congress as between courts and administrative agencies. Congress has not made uniform provisions in defining who may go to court, for what grievance, and under what circumstances, in seeking relief from administrative determinations. Quite the contrary. In the successive enactments by which Congress has established administrative agencies as major instruments of regulation, there is the greatest contrariety in the extent to which, and the procedures by which, different measures of control afford judicial review of administrative action.
Except in those rare instances, as in a claim of citizenship in deportation proceedings, when a judicial trial becomes a constitutional requirement because of “The difference in security of judicial over administrative action,” Ng Fung Ho v. White, 259 U. S. 276, 285, whether judicial review is available at all, and, if so, who may invoke it, under what circumstances, in what manner, and to what end, are questions that depend for their answer upon the particular enactment under which judicial review is claimed. Recognition of the claim turns on the provisions dealing with judicial review in a particular statute and on the setting of such provisions in that statute as part of a scheme for accomplishing the purposes expressed by that statute. Apart from the text and texture of a particular law in relation to which judicial review is sought, “judicial review” is a mischievous abstraction. There is no such thing as a common law of judicial review in the federal courts. The procedural provisions in more than a score of these regulatory measures prove that the manner in which Congress has distributed responsibility for the enforcement of its laws between courts and administrative agencies runs a gamut all the way from authorizing a *313judicial trial de novo of a claim determined by the administrative agency to denying all judicial review and making administrative action definitive.
Congress has not only devised different schemes of enforcement for different Acts. It has from time to time modified and restricted the scope of review under the same Act. Compare § 16 of the Act to Regulate Commerce, February 4, 1887, c. 104, 24 Stat. 379, 38-385, with § 13 of the Commerce Court Act, June 18, 1910, c. 309, 36 Stat. 539, 554-5, and 49 U. S. C. § 16 (12), and the latter with enforcement of reparation orders, 49 U. S. C § 16 (2). Moreover the same statute, as is true of the Interstate Commerce Act, may make some orders not judicially reviewable for any purpose, see e. g., United States v. Los Angeles & S. L. R. Co., 273 U. S. 299, or reviewable by some who are adversely affected and not by others, e. g., Singer & Sons v. Union Pacific R. Co., 311 U. S. 295, 305-308. The oldest scheme of administrative control—our customs revenue legislation—shows in its evolution all sorts of permutations and combinations in using available administrative and judicial remedies. See, for instance, Elliott v. Swartwout, 10 Pet. 137; Cary v. Curtis, 3 How. 236; Murray’s Lessee v. Hoboken Land Co., 18 How. 272; Hilton v. Merritt, 110 U. S. 97; for a general survey, see Freund, Administrative Powers over Persons and Property, §§ 260-62. And only the other day we found the implications of the Railway Labor Act (c. 347, 44 Stat. (part 2) 577, as amended, c. 691, 48 Stat. 1185, 45 U. S. C. § 151 et seq.) to be such that courts could not even exercise the function of keeping the National Mediation Board within its statutory authority. Switchmen’s Union v. Mediation Board, 320 U. S. 297. Were this list of illustrations extended and the various regulatory schemes thrown into a hotchpot, the result would be hopeless discord. And to do so would be to treat these legislative schemes as though they were part of a single body of law instead of each being a self-contained scheme.
*314The divers roles played by judicial review in the administration of regulatory measures other than the Agricultural Marketing Act cannot tell us when and for whom judicial review of administrative action can be had under that Act. The fact that certain classes of individuals adversely affected by a ruling of the Interstate Commerce Commission can and other classes cannot obtain redress in court, does not tell us what classes may and what classes may not obtain judicial redress for action by the Secretary of Agriculture which affects these respective classes adversely. And to cite the Switchmen’s case, supra, in support of this case is to treat our decisions too lightly. In the numerous cases either granting or denying judicial review, grant or denial was reached not by applying some “natural law” of judicial review nor on the basis of some general body of doctrines for construing the diverse provisions of the great variety of federal regulatory statutes. Judicial review when recognized—its scope and its incidence—was derived from the materials furnished by the particular statute in regard to which the opportunity for judicial review was asserted. This is the lesson to be drawn from the prior decisions of this Court on judicial review, and not any doctrinaire notions of general applicability to statutes based on different schemes of administration and conveying different purposes by Congress in the utilization of administrative and judicial remedies for the enforcement of law. However useful judicial review may be, it is for Congress and not for this Court to decide when it may be used—except when the Constitution commands it. In this case there is no such command. Common-law remedies withheld by Congress and unrelated to a new scheme for enforcing new rights and duties should not be engrafted upon remedies which Congress saw fit to particularize. To do so impliedly denies to Congress the constitutional right of choice in the selection of reme*315dies, and turns common-law remedies into constitutional necessities simply because they are old and familiar.
When recently the Agricultural Marketing Act was in litigation before us, we sustained its constitutionality and defined its scope in the light of its history, its purposes and its provisions. United States v. Rock Royal Co-op., 307 U. S. 533. We held in that case that a milk handler cannot challenge in court such an order as the one which is now assailed. Again we must turn to the history, the purposes and the provisions of the Act to determine whether Congress gave the producer the right of judicial relief here sought.
In 1931 and 1932, prices of manufactured dairy products reached the lowest level in twenty-five years. Because of their relatively weak bargaining position, milk producers suffered most seriously. See Mortenson, Milk Distribution as a Public Utility, p. 6; Black, The Dairy Industry and the AAA, c. III; State Milk and Dairy Legislation (U. S. Gov’t Printing Office, 1941) p. 3. Accordingly, Congress decided that the public interest in the handling of milk in interstate commerce could no longer be left to the haggling of a disorderly market, mitigated by inadequate organization within the industry. The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 (c. 25, 48 Stat. 31) was the result. The “essential purpose” of the series of enactments thus initiated was to raise the producer’s prices. Sen. Rep. No. 1011, 74th Cong., 3d Sess., p. 3. The Act of 1933 was amended in 1935 (c. 641, 49 Stat. 750), and partially reenacted and amended by the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, with which we are here concerned, c. 296, 50 Stat. 246, c. 567, 50 Stat. 563, 7 U. S. C. § 601 et seq.
An elaborate enactment like this, devised by those who know the needs of the industry and drafted by legislative specialists, is to be treated as an organism. Every part *316must be related to the scheme as a whole. The legislation is a self-contained code, and within it must be found whatever remedies Congress saw fit to afford. For the Act did not give new remedies for old rights. It created new rights and new duties, and precisely defined the remedies for the enforcement of duties and the vindication of rights. Of course the statute concerns the interests of producers, handlers and consumers. But it does not define or create any legal interest for the consumer, and it specifically provides that “No order issued under this title shall be applicable to any producer in his capacity as producer.” § 8c (13) (B).
The statute as an entirety makes it clear that obligations are imposed on handlers alone. Section 8c (6) (A) authorizes the Secretary to classify milk according to the form in which or the purpose for which it is used. Section 8c (5)(B)(ii) directs the Secretary to provide for the payment to producers of a uniform price “irrespective of the uses made of such milk by the individual handler to whom it is delivered.” This latter, known as the “blended price,” is computed under the Secretary’s Order No. 4 of July 28,1941, by multiplying the use value of the milk by the total quantity, making specified deductions and additions, and then dividing the resulting sum by the total quantity of the milk. § 904.7 (b). A deduction for payments to cooperatives which enters into this computation is the object of petitioner’s attack.
It is apparent that the minimum “blended price” which the producer receives may be different than the minimum “use value” fixed by the Secretary or his Administrator which the handler must pay. Thus § 8c (5) (C) authorizes provision for necessary adjustments. The mechanics of these adjustments are described in the Secretary’s Order No. 4. In short, the handler who sells or uses his milk so that its value is more than the minimum “blended price” he pays the producer, must pay the excess to a settlement *317fund, and the handler who puts his milk to a lower value use than the minimum “blended price” he pays in turn receives the difference out of the fund. § 904.8 (b).
Violation of any order by a handler makes him subject to criminal proceedings. § 8c (14). Thus, while the Act and the Order may affect the interests of producers as well as those of handlers, legally they operate directly against handlers only. The corrective processes provided by the Act reflect this situation. Section 8c (15) permits a handler to challenge an order before the Secretary, and if dissatisfied, he may bring suit in equity before a district court. Provision for judicial remedies for consumers and producers is significantly absent. Such omission is neither inadvertent nor surprising. It would be manifestly incongruous for an Act which specifically provides that no order shall be directed at producers to give to producers the right to attack the validity of such an order in court.
To create a judicial remedy for producers when the statute gave none is to dislocate the Congressional scheme of enforcement. For example, § 8c (15) (B) provides that the pendency of a proceeding for review instituted by a handler shall not impede or delay proceedings brought under § 8a (6) for compliance with an order. ' Because there is no provision for court review of an order on a producer’s position naturally there is no corresponding provision to guard against such interference with enforcement of an order. By giving producers the right to sue although Congress withheld that right, the suspension of a milk order pending disposition of a producer’s suit will now depend upon the discretion of trial judges. And technical details concerning the milk industry that were committed to the Secretary of Agriculture are now made subjects of litigation before ill-equipped courts.
By denying them access to the courts Congress has not left producers to the mercy of the Secretary of Agriculture. Congress merely has devised means other than judicial *318for the effective expression of producers’ interests in the terms of an order. Before the Secretary may issue an order he is required to “give due notice of and an opportunity for a hearing upon a proposed order.” § 8c (3). At such a hearing all interested persons may submit relevant evidence, and the procedure makes adequate provision for notice to those who may be affected by an order. See Administrative Procedure and Practice in the Department of Agriculture under the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937 (U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1939), p. 11 et seq. Nor are these the only or the most effective means for safeguarding the producer’s interest. While an order may be issued despite the objection of handlers of more than 50% of the volume of the commodity covered by the order, no order may issue when not approved by at least two-thirds—either numerically or according to volume of production—of the producers. § 8c (9).
The fact that Congress made specific provision for submission of some defined questions to judicial review would hardly appear to be an argument for inferring that judicial review even of broader scope is also open as to other questions for which Congress did not provide judicial review. The obvious conclusion called for is that as to such other questions, judicial review was purposefully withheld. In the frame of this statute such an omission should not be treated as having no meaning, or rather as meaning that an omission is to be given the same effect as an inclusion. Nor does § 8a (8) referring to remedies “existing at law or in equity” touch our problem. That only adds to the remedies in § 8a (5)—(7) for the enforcement of the Act. It in no way qualifies or expands the express provisions of the statute in § 8c (15) for judicial review of such an order as the present—specification of the class of persons who are given the right to resort to courts and narrow limitation of the scope of judicial review. The remedy of review here sought by producers is by § 8c (15) explicitly *319restricted to handlers; and such review is not like that before the Court, a conventional suit in equity, but is a procedure for review of an adverse ruling in a price proceeding before the Secretary of Agriculture. It is a review of an administrative review, not an independent judicial determination.
An elaborate process of implications should not be invented to escape the plain meaning of § 8c (15), and to dislocate a carefully formulated scheme of enforcement. That is not the way to construe such legislation, that is, if Chief Justice Taft was right in characterizing as “a conspicuous instance of his [Chief Justice White’s] unusual and remarkable power and facility in statesmanlike interpretation of statute law,” 257 U. S. xxv, the doctrine established in Texas & Pacific Ry. Co. v. Abilene Cotton Oil Co., 204 U. S. 426, and more particularly the way in which § 22 of the Act to Regulate Commerce was therein construed to effectuate the purposes of that Act. 204 U. S. at 446-447.
The Court is thus adding to what Congress has written a provision for judicial relief of producers. And it sanctions such relief in a case in which petitioners have no standing to sue on any theory. The only effect of the deduction which is challenged by the producers is to fix a minimum price to which they are entitled perhaps lower than that which might otherwise have been determined. But the Act does not prevent their bargaining for a price higher than the minimum, and we are advised by the Government of what is not denied by petitioners, that such arrangements are by no means unusual. This Court has held that a consumer has no standing to challenge a minimum price order like the one before us. Atlanta v. Ickes, 308 U. S. 517; cf. Sprunt & Son v. United States, 281 U. S. 249. Surely a producer who may bargain for prices above the minimum is in no better legal position than a consumer who urges that too high a minimum has *320been improperly fixed. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts which purchased milk for its public institutions valued at $105,232.97 in 1940, and $117,584.50 in 1941, has hardly a less substantial interest in the minimum price than that of the petitioners. And yet Massachusetts has no standing to object to the minimum fixed by an order.
The alleged lower minimum “blended price” is the sum and substance of petitioners’ complaint. If that gives them no standing to sue nothing does. An attack merely on the method by which the blended price was reduced may present an interesting abstract question but furnishes no legal right to sue. The producers have nothing to do with the settlement fund. They receive the blended price in any event. Even assuming that the Administrator may have fixed a blended price in ways that may argue an inconsistency between what he has done and what Congress told him to do, any resulting disadvantage to a producer is wholly unrelated to the settlement fund. That fund is contributed by handlers and paid to handlers. If handlers may not attack payments to cooperatives, as this Court held in United States v. Rock Royal Co-op., supra at 561, with all deference I am unable to see how producers can be in a better position to attack such payments. This suit was rightly dismissed.