Court Opinion

ID: 9439287
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 06:30:03.202688+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:26:17.099558
License: Public Domain

HARRY T. EDWARDS, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I concur in the result reached by the court. Under the applicable agency regulations, any “interested person” may request a hearing on an application. 17 C.F.R.§ 270.0-5. However, the SEC is required to hold such a hearing only if it is determined to be “necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors.” In this case, the SEC denied petitioner’s request for a hearing, because it had already considered and reasonably disposed of the issues presented in 1995 when it initially approved another investment company’s application for a manager of managers exemption. The SEC was thus fully justified in denying petitioner’s request for a hearing. I therefore agree that the agency’s action should be summarily affirmed.
I also agree that petitioner has no standing to seek judicial review of the merits of the SEC’s order. It is clear that petitioner has not satisfied Article III standing requirements on this score. I do not agree, however, that petitioner lacks standing to seek review of the agency’s denial of the requested hearing.
It is true that our cases require plaintiffs to demonstrate that the denial of a procedural right will jeopardize interests particular to them, but they do not go so far as to deny standing in cases where a statute or regulation affords a party such a particularized procedural right. In Florida Audubon Society v. Bentsen, 94 F.3d 658, 664 (D.C.Cir.1996) (en banc), we reiterated the principle that, when the government fails to comply with generalized procedural requirements (in that case, of the National Environmental Policy Act), a plaintiff seeking to challenge the alleged violation of the procedural rule must demonstrate that the government’s failure to comply will cause a distinct risk to a particularized interest of the plaintiff. We held that “the mere violation of a procedural requirement thus does not permit any and all persons to sue to enforce the requirement.” Id. Similarly, in City of Orrville, Ohio v. FERC, 147 F.3d 979, 985 (D.C.Cir.1998), we held that a party does not acquire “a direct stake in a litigation” for purposes of standing simply by participating in the administrative proceedings giving rise to the litigation (internal citation omitted). These cases are inapposite, for they do not address the issue that we face in the instant matter.
Where a statute or a regulation affords a particular party an undisputed right to seek an administrative hearing, Florida Audubon Society does not compel the conclusion that the party lacks standing to challenge an agency’s refusal to grant the required hearing. In this case, the governing regulation permits an “interested person” to submit relevant written facts *29and request a hearing. See 17 C.F.R. § 270.0-5. The Commission must order such a hearing if it appears to be necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors. Id. In my view, petitioner, as an “interested person,” has standing to challenge as arbitrary the Commission’s denial of its request for a hearing.
It is immaterial that petitioner cannot seek review of the merits of the SEC order. The particularized interest here is petitioner’s right to seek a hearing and to have one granted when it is “necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors.” To hold otherwise is to suggest that the agency could deny with impunity the right of any “interested person” even to receive notice or appear before the agency pursuant to 15 U.S.C. § 80a-39(a) with no threat of judicial review. Standing law does not condone such a result.