Court Opinion

ID: 9465104
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:35:50.483049+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:58.553817
License: Public Domain

JAMES C. HILL, Circuit Judge,
specially concurring.
I concur in the opinion prepared for us by Judge Roney and in the result reached. I am persuaded, however, that these additional remarks are pertinent.
We have, today, decided this case by an even-handed application of the law, as enacted by the Congress, to the material facts which are not in dispute. The dispute revealed in the record is not pertinent to our judicial function. The Administrator’s contentions question the wisdom of the law insofar as it leaves it to a sovereign state to act responsibly towards the taxpayers of the entire nation. The Administrator asserts that the state board has irresponsibly granted a certificate, certifying to an absurdity, in order to divert the funds of the country’s taxpayers to payment for an improved facility in that state.
Finding that, under 33 U.S.C. § 1282(b), the state board’s certificate is controlling, we do not address and we do not decide whether or not the Administrator’s charges have any merit. Those assertions test the wisdom of the Congress in having given the state important rights, and corresponding duties, in determining whether or not a state project is entitled to a higher share of federal taxpayer’s money. If, as, the federal party suggests, the state board will not act responsibly in the face of such a provincial temptation, the Congress may be compelled to retreat from granting local rights and repair to more centralized federal control. That will be determined by what the Congress perceives to be the degree of responsibility displayed by the states.
With the helpful counsel of able attorneys, we have found and applied the law. If that law be unwise, as to which we express no opinion, we have every confidence that those who work under Article I of the Constitution will deal further with the matter.