Court Opinion

ID: 9776143
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:19:54.419676+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:03:55.951404
License: Public Domain

Lavenski R. Smith, Justice, concurring in part; dissenting in part. I concur in the Court’s decision reversing and remanding this case. However, I must write separately to address the constitutional issue raised by appellant. The majority refused to hear appellant’s constitutional arguments because they were first raised before the circuit court and not before the administrative agency. The court cites Arkansas Health Services Agency v. Desiderata, Inc., 331 Ark. 144, 958 S.W.2d 7 (1998), wherein this court adopts the “Hamilton” rule. The Hamilton rule requires even constitutional issues to be raised at the Administrative Law Judge or Commission level because such issues often require an exhaustive analysis that is best accomplished by an adversary proceeding, which can only be done at the hearing level. Hamilton v. Jeffry Stone Co., 6 Ark. App. 333, 641 S.W.2d 723 (1982). This rationale is sound with respect to agencies and commissions such as the Workers’ Compensation Commission that have extensive legal expertise and conduct numerous legal proceedings. However, it is much less persuasive when applied to professional and trade regulatory bodies, which, as in this case, consist entirely of members of that trade or profession. Appellant wished to question the constitutionality of a state law as it is written. The State Board of Architects before which he appeared lacked the authority to determine such an issue. Administrative hearings before such bodies should not be presumptively analogous to trial court proceedings that follow our rules of civil procedure and evidence in respect to purely legal issues such as constitutionality. Appellant attempted to raise his constitutional objections to the circuit court. It unquestionably has the legal authority to hear and decide constitutional matters. Prior to Arkansas Health Services, this court on at least one occasion, heard an appeal from a circuit court decision where apparendy the constitutionality of an agency rule was addressed for the first time on appeal to the circuit court. Johnson v. Arkansas Board of Examiners in Psychology, 305 Ark. 451, 808 S.W.2d 766, (1991). I find the following analysis of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to be persuasive and a better rule than Hamilton for cases like the one at bar: Reid raises several constitutional issues which implicate the power and jurisdiction of the NTSB. First, she argues that the suspension process unconstitutionally infringed her right to pursue her chosen profession. Second, she contends that the “public interest” standard of 49 U.S.C. § 1429(a) is too indefinite to satisfy due process. Third, she asserts that the Administrator’s ex parte sanction procedure violated her procedural due process rights. These arguments present general challenges to the constitutionality of section 1429(a) and its enforcement scheme, which are beyond the jurisdiction of the NTSB to determine. See Salfi, 422 U.S. at 765, 95 S.Ct. at 2466. As the Supreme Court has explained, “[c]onstitutional questions obviously are unsuited to resolution in administrative hearing procedures and, therefore, access to the courts is essential to the decision of such questions. . . . [W]hen constitutional questions are in issue, the availability of judicial review is presumed.” Califano v. Sanders, 430 U.S. 99, 109, 97 S.Ct. 980, 986, 51 L.Ed.2d 192 (1977). Thus, we conclude that we must address the merits of proper constitutional arguments although they were not raised in the administrative proceeding. Reid v. Engen, 765 F.2d 1457, 1461 (9th Cir. 1985). Unlike the majority, I would reach the constitutional issue in this case, and I therefore respectfully dissent.