Court Opinion

ID: 9466981
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:34:54.640543+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:05.229007
License: Public Domain

LEVENTHAL, Circuit Judge, concurring:
I concur in Judge Tamm’s opinion for the court. It makes important contributions to our understanding of the issues. My comments on the merits are to add the perspective that a concurring opinion sometimes permits. On the jurisdictional issues, I have additional views which in the end I do not present for this ease but set forth to govern future proceedings.
A.
The ultimate test announced by Judge Tamm as to the merits is that disqualification from a rulemaking proceeding results “only when there has been a clear and convincing showing that [the agency member] has an unalterably closed mind on matters critical to the disposition of the [proceeding].” The test reflects a Supreme Court ruling as to administrative agencies.1
It is not far removed from the test used in considering challenges to those considered for the duty as jurors quintessentially engaged in specific fact-finding.2 It is similar to a standard articulated as to recusal of judges.3
The application of this test to agencies must take into account important differences in function and functioning between the agencies and court systems. In fulfilling the functions of applying or considering the validity of a statute, or a government program, the judge endeavors to put aside personal views as to the desirability of the law or program, and he is not disqualified because he personally deems the program laudable4 or objectionable.5 In the case of agency rulemaking, however, the decisionmakingofficials are appointed precisely to implement statutory programs, and with the expectation that they have a personal disposition to enforce them vigilantly and effectively. They work with a combination rather than a separation of functions, in legislative modes, and take action on the basis of information coming from many sources, even though that provides a mindset before a proceeding is begun, subject to reconsideration in the light of the proceeding.
Judge Tamm’s opinion for the court ventilates important distinctions between rule-making and adjudication and their consequences in terms of standards of disqualification, and the differences between adjudicative facts pertinent to specific parties and generalized legislative facts, including predictions and underlying views on policy. As Judge Tamm notes, the differences generally identify differences in procedure required for their determination.6 The difference in nature of issues persists, ' .as Judge Tamm points out, even though some of the tasks of rulemaking are carried out with adaptations of adjudicative forms, *1176whether this additional procedure is adopted voluntarily by the agency, as has sometimes been the case, or is required by court or legislation.
The provisions of the Moss-Magnuson Act have been widely recognized as in effect incorporating into statutory law the approach identified in a number of decisions, primarily decisions of this court. Those decisions set forth the proposition that although rulemaking generally proceeds merely upon the basis of written comment on a proposal, some specific issues are of such a nature that meaningful opportunity for comment requires additional scope for presentation, perhaps by oral submission in the form of a legislative hearing, perhaps by cross-examination in matters involving a specific factual issue where meaningful comment requires a predicate of probing the basis for the contrary views. The train of opinions in this circuit runs from American Airlines, through Holm v. Hardin, to International Harvester, which had the highest visibility and became the focal point of discussion.7
It is fair to say that in all of our opinions the assumption was that particular issues might require additional procedures, if they were contested, but that the basic framework of the rulemaking proceeding as one primarily dependent on general policy formulation was unaffected by the particular procedures. Of course, there remains a requirement of fairness for those with authority to act by rulemaking but the standards are not identical with those pertinent for judicial-type decisionmaking in adjudicatory actions.
Consider, for example, the assertions of an agency head that he discerns abuses that may require corrective regulation. One can hypothesize beginning an adjudicatory proceeding with an open mind, indeed a blank mind, a tabula rasa devoid of any previous knowledge of the matter. In sharp contrast, one cannot even conceive of an agency conducting a rulemaking proceeding unless it had delved into the subject sufficiently to become concerned that there was an evil or abuse that required regulatory response. It would be the height of absurdity, even a kind of abuse of administrative process, for an agency to embroil interested parties in a rulemaking proceeding, without some initial concern that there was an abuse that needed remedying, a concern that would be set forth in the accompanying statement of the purpose of the proposed rule.
In its administrative setting an agency’s effort is not limited to one type of activity. Investigation and policy-making are integral to the total function just as much as decisionmaking. It is appropriate and indeed mandatory for agency heads and staff to maintain contacts with industry and consumer groups, trade associations and press, congressmen of various persuasions, and to present views in interviews, speeches, meetings, conventions, and testimony. The agency gathers information and perceptions in a myriad of ways and must use it for a myriad of purposes.8 With capacity and *1177willingness to reconsider there is no basis for disqualification.
The tests of disqualification cannot be applied identically for judges and agency heads, for reasons already identified. Yet even judges are not disqualified merely because they have previously announced their positions on legal issues,9 even as to announcements outside the course of written decisions.10 Judicial disqualification cannot be based on general frame of reference, attitudes or assumptions as to the processes of society.11 And even a judge’s public comment giving a general impression of a state of facts does not present a rigidity against refinement and reflection that disqualifies him from sitting in judgment on a particular fact issue.12
B.
I now turn to what I consider a jurisdictional problem. In part it is addressed in part II of Judge Tamm’s opinion, dealing with the doctrine of exhaustion of administrative remedies. I concur in many of Judge Tamm’s observations, and the court’s result. But my analysis is somewhat different.
The jurisdictional problems that concern me are first, whether, and under what circumstances, a Federal court has jurisdiction of an action to halt ongoing proceedings before an “agency” of the United States on the ground that they reflect impermissible bias or prejudice, and second, whether this can ever be done by a district court that has no jurisdiction to review the agency’s final actions.
The doctrine of exhaustion of administrative remedies, which Judge Tamm discusses, is a judge-made prudential doctrine — a “rule of judicial administration that no one is entitled to judicial relief for a supposed or threatened injury until the prescribed administrative remedy has been exhausted.” Myers v. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., 303 U.S. 41, 50-51, 58 S.Ct. 459, 463, 82 L.Ed. 638 (1938). The Court gave little weight to the claim “that the mere holding of the prescribed administrative hearing would result in irreparable damage.” 303 U.S. at 51, 58 S.Ct. at 464.
The jurisdictional difficulty arises out of the requirement of finality, a related doctrine which also comes into play in this case, and which overlaps the requirement of exhaustion of administrative remedies but is analytically distinct. One requirement may be applicable even when the other is not.
*1178The Administrative Procedure Act provides, § 10(c), now 5 U.S.C. § 704: “Agency action made reviewable by statute and final agency action for which there is no other adequate remedy in a court are subject to judicial review. A preliminary, procedural, or intermediate agency action or ruling not directly reviewable is subject to review on the review of the final agency action.” Statutes with special provisions for judicial review reflect the the same basic approach, of limiting review to final actions, and that is the case for the Moss-Magnuson Act’s provision for judicial review (in the court of appeals) of FTC rulemaking.13
Section 10(c) of the APA is a generalized provision for judicial review by the district court where no other form of judicial review is prescribed by Congress. But it requires more than exhaustion of administrative remedies, it also requires a final agency action. Association of National Advertisers, Inc. v. FTC, 565 F.2d 237 (2nd Cir.1977). It is elementary that the mere conduct of proceedings on a proposal of a rule, which may never be adopted or enforced, is not final action, and a court will not enjoin a rulemaking proceeding on a claim that the agency had no statutory or constitutional authority to promulgate the proposed rule. Bristol-Myers Co. v. FTC, 138 U.S.App.D.C. 22, 27, 424 F.2d 935, 940, cert. denied, 400 U.S. 824, 91 S.Ct. 46, 27 L.Ed.2d 52 (1970).
If a proceeding should eventuate in a rule that a party opposes, the party may challenge the final action adopting the rule on the ground that the rule is defective for reasons of disqualification of a member. Accordingly, this is not a case of agency action (other than final action) “for which there is no other adequate remedy in a court.” Only in rare instances is a non-final agency action reviewed in the teeth of a general denial of jurisdiction. In Leedom v. Kyne, 358 U.S. 184, 79 S.Ct. 180, 3 L.Ed.2d 210 (1958) the Court was willing to bypass a general jurisdictional barrier when an agency clearly violated an express statutory prohibition. But the Leedom exception “is a narrow one.”14 It is reserved for the kind of clear case that identified the original doctrine of mandamus.
A court must disclaim jurisdiction notwithstanding the claim that action already taken realistically means that the ongoing proceeding will be waste motion and will have to be done over again. This is “part of the price we pay for the advantages of an administrative process” and preferable to having the process “clogged if there were interlocutory appeals to the courts.” Thermal Ecology Must Be Preserved v. Atomic Energy Comm., 139 U.S.App.D.C. 366, 368, 433 F.2d 524, 526 (1970). That opinion noted the possibility of an exception “in extreme instances where the action is held to constitute an effective deprivation of appellant’s rights.” Id. See also Sterling Drug, Inc. v. FTC, 146 U.S.App.D.C. 237, 250, 450 F.2d 698, 711 (1971).
Given these strong walls of jurisdictional barriers, and narrow gates of entrance, it is time to turn to the situation of a claim of prejudice or bias alleged to infect an agency proceeding at its core.
When a claim of bias is filed against a trial judge, his refusal to recuse himself is not appealable, there being no final order. However, there has been some tendency of the appellate courts to accept jurisdiction of the claim, notwithstanding their general *1179confinement to review of final orders, of district courts, by reference to consider the matter on application for a writ of mandamus, at least in unusual cases, with jurisdiction predicated on the All-Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1651.15 That jurisdiction is not routinely invoked, and rulings are generally phrased in terms of “exceptional circumstances.” 16 Mandamus was denied in Mitchell v. Sirica, 163 U.S.App.D.C. 373, 502 F.2d 375, cert. denied, 418 U.S. 955, 94 S.Ct. 3232, 41 L.Ed.2d 1177 (1974), notwithstanding the view of the dissent that the case was one of the “really- extraordinary cases” that warrant mandamus, and that mandamus was appropriate under the All-Writs Act in cases “which are subject to our eventual appellate jurisdiction.” (163 U.S.App. D.C. at 385, 502 F.2d at 387).
Even assuming arguendo that the case is one which this court would consider at an interlocutory stage as to a request for disqualification of a judge, it by no means follows that a court has jurisdiction to intervene in an ongoing administrative process. The courts have a limited supervisory province as to agencies,17 but it is not as direct as the supervision of appellate courts over trial courts, and there are distinct limitations on available judicial remedies. Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. National Resources Defense Fund, 435 U.S. 519, 98 S.Ct. 1197, 55 L.Ed.2d 460 (1978); FCC v. Pottsville Broadcasting & Co., 309 U.S. 134, 60 S.Ct. 437, 84 L.Ed.2d 656 (1940); Greater Boston TV Corp. v. FCC (II), 149 U.S.App.D.C. 322, 335, 463 F.2d 268, 281 (1971).
If there is to be an analogy to an expansion of mandamus of district judges, based on the existence of the appellate court’s prospective jurisdiction, the jurisdiction would not lie in the district court, but in the court of appeals, which is where Congress had lodged general jurisdiction to review FTC orders and rules, 15 U.S.C. § 57a. To the extent that the All Writs Act has been used in connection with FTC matters, it is the court of appeals that has been found to have the power to grant relief. FTC v. Dean Foods Co., 384 U.S. 597, 86 S.Ct. 1738, 16 L.Ed.2d 802 (1966). On this thesis I posit a total lack of jurisdiction in the district court to consider the merits of plaintiff’s case in any way or to any extent. Thus, even if this case fell within an exception to the finality requirement, jurisdiction to consider the interlocutory action would lie in this court and not the district court. But I recognize that this thesis has not previously been identified by the court and was not perceived in the 1962 Amos Treat decision, to be discussed below. Amos Treat issued prior to the Supreme Court’s Dean Foods decision and is subject to reconsideration on this point.18 But since this point is novel, and was not argued, I agree that it should not be given effect retrospectively.
Reverting to issues of bias or prejudice, this court has basically exercised its supervision in the context of review of final orders, Cinderella Career & Finishing Schools, Inc. v. FTC, 138 U.S.App.D.C. 152, 425 F.2d 583 (1970); Texaco, Inc. v. FTC, 118 U.S.App.D.C. 366, 336 F.2d 754 (1964), vacated and remanded on other grounds, 381 U.S. 739, 85 S.Ct. 1798, 14 L.Ed.2d 714 (1965).
To the extent that there is any judicial jurisdiction to halt an ongoing agency proceeding — or what is the equivalent, to enter a declaratory judgment that it cannot result in a valid final action — that jurisdiction, whether exercised by this court or (let it be assumed) by a district court, is available only in a limited class of cases, not including the case at bar. There is always *1180some problem of analysis when a court’s determination of whether it has jurisdiction requires it to take a “peek at the merits.” 19 But I think the doctrine can be etched fairly clearly.
The precedent primarily relied on by plaintiffs is Amos Treat & Co. v. SEC, 113 U.S.App.D.C. 100, 306 F.2d 260 (1962). The court enjoined an adjudicatory proceeding because one of the commissioners who-had participated in certain rulings had previously, as a member of the staff, participated in the investigation. That decision was a ruling of a structural incapacity, which was necessary for a “fair trial” (113 U.S.App.D.C. at 103, 306 F.2d at 263). The next year another panel, Judges Bazelon, Bastían and Burger, described it as an “exceptional” case, SEC v. R. A. Holman & Co., 116 U.S.App.D.C. 279, 323 F.2d 284, cert. denied, 375 U.S. 943, 84 S.Ct. 350, 11 L.Ed.2d 274 (1963). In Holman the court refused to halt an SEC adjudicatory proceeding on the ground that one of the commissioners had headed a division with responsibility over the registration statement involved. In Associated Press v. FCC, 145 U.S.App.D.C. 172, 448 F.2d 1095 (1971), the court followed Holman, not Amos Treat. And in Sterling Drug, Inc. v. FTC, 146 U.S.App.D.C. 237, 450 F.2d 698 (1971), the court followed Holman and referred to Amos Treat as a ease “where the agency has very clearly violated an important constitutional or statutory right.” (146 U.S.App.D.C. at 249, 450 F.2d at 710) (emphasis added).
The only instance where Amos Treat was followed, in terms of judicial intercession at a non-final stage, was Fitzgerald v. Hampton, 152 U.S.App.D.C. 1, 467 F.2d 755 (1972), and that, too, was a structural violation— the denial of a public hearing.
If a federal court, district or appellate, is to take jurisdiction before final agency action, it can only be in a case of “clear right” such as outright violation of a clear statutory provision (Leedom) or violation of basic rights established by a structural flaw, and not requiring in any way a consideration of interrelated aspects of the merits — which can only be done appropriately on review of a final order. This statement of the doctrine of the exceptions to finality is etched more sharply here than in some of our previous opinions, though it is offered as an accurate statement of what the opinions as a whole were driving at. However, this sharpening of doctrine has aspects of novelty, since earlier expressions referred to denial of basic rights and did not articulate the qualifications of structural flaw, or defiance of an outright prohibition. On that basis, as will be indicated below, I am prepared to agree that the district court’s acceptance of jurisdiction not be rescinded retroactively,, and to acquiesce in its taking jurisdiction. That still leaves us, however, with the necessity to determine whether the judicial ruling (of disqualification) was proper on the merits. And it was not proper, in my view, for reasons developed in Judge Tamm’s opinion for the court.
A strict logician might have ground to attack this concept of a jurisdictional ruling announced for the future. In the same way, a strict logician could assail the doctrine whereby courts deliberately decide, on prudential grounds, to pass over jurisdictional questions and to dispose of a case on the merits. But that doctrine is alive, and fortified by pragmatic considerations involved in sound judicial administration.20
The case at bar is one where the very inquiry posed by plaintiff obviously requires some analysis of the views expressed by Chairman Pertschuk, and comparison with the issues as they will actually be focused in the ongoing proceeding. The Government *1181puts forward substantial considerations in justification of Chairman Pertschuk’s remarks — the proper purpose of calling the public’s attention to possible abuses and to factors enhancing public understanding, the propriety of a hortatory role on a wide range of issues, the breadth of the underlying policy issues, as contrasted with the quality of rulings on specific, adjudicative effects (with the' corollary likelihood of specific condemnation and stigma). But even if one pretermits all such considerations, the actual conduct of the proceeding may bear significantly on the relationship of the remarks to ultimate issues, let alone dispositions, which are necessary aspects of any claim of prejudicial bias.
These factors make it clear to me that any residue of the Amos Treat doctrine is inapplicable to this case.
C.
If this matter were to arise subsequent to the instant decision, it would in my view have been obligatory of the district court to deny jurisdiction, even assuming prefinality intervention as to the FTC is not confined to a circuit court of appeals, because this was not a case involving a defiance of an explicit statute, or a structural flaw denying basic rights. And in the future any exercise of jurisdiction by a district court should be reversed by a judgment vacating the district court’s order, with instructions to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. However, in this case I join in the order of reversal. This is partly due to the area of doubt left in the wake of our previous rulings, including Amos Treat and Fitzgerald, making it proper to consider that a more firm rule of prohibiting consideration of the merits should be announced for prospective application, under the Sunburst21 approach — so as to avoid undoing a ruling of district court jurisdiction to consider the merits, that was not unreasonable when made. Reinforcing our decision to consider the merits in this case is the fact that under its not unreasonable assertion of jurisdiction the district court issued a ruling on the merits that for more than a year22 has constituted a stain on the FTC proceeding. That stain would persist if the appellate court confined itself to a jurisdictional ruling, to the detriment of sound governmental process.

. The test is whether “the juror can lay aside his impression or opinion and render a verdict based on the evidence presented in court.” Dobbert v. Florida, 432 U.S. 282, 302, 97 S.Ct. 2290, 2303, 53 L.Ed.2d 344 (1977); Murphy v. Florida, 421 U.S. 794, 800, 95 S.Ct. 2031, 44 L.Ed.2d 589 (1975); Irvin v. Dowd, 366 U.S. 717, 722-23, 81 S.Ct. 1639, 6 L.Ed.2d 751 (1961); United States v. Haldeman, 181 U.S.App.D.C. 254, 283, 559 F.2d 31, 60 (1977) (en banc).

. United States v. Grinnell Corp., 384 U.S. 563, 583, 86 S.Ct. 1698, 1710, 16 L.Ed.2d 778 (1966) (“manifesting a closed mind on the merits,” as applied to views expressed after hearing some evidence).

. Eisler v. United States, 83 U.S.App.D.C. 315, 320, 170 F.2d 273, 278 (D.C.Cir.1948).

. Idaho v. Freeman, 478 F.Supp. 33 (D. Idaho, 1979).

. American Airlines, Inc. v. CAB, 123 U.S.App.D.C. 310, 359 F.2d 624 (D.C.Cir.1966) (en banc).

. American Airlines, Inc. v. CAB, 123 U.S.App.D.C. 310, 359 F.2d 624 (D.C.Cir.1966) (en banc); Walter Holm & Co. v. Hardin, 145 U.S.App.D.C. 347, 449 F.2d 1009 (D.C.Cir.1971) (Judges McGowan, Leventhal and Van Pelt); International Harvester Co. v. Ruckelshaus, 155 U.S.App.D.C. 411, 478 F.2d 615 (D.C.Cir.1973) (Judges Bazelon, Tamm and Leventhal).

. Ash Grove Cement Co. v. FTC, 577 F.2d 1368, 1375-1376 (9th Cir. 1978):
Information gathered by the Commission under its broad investigatory powers can be used for a variety of purposes, including promulgation of new rules, reporting to Congress, disseminating economic knowledge to the public, or, as here, to prepare an economic survey or report to enable the Commission to better administer the statutes over which it has jurisdiction. In addition, factual material compiled by the agency may call its attention to situations which warrant an adjudicative enforcement proceeding. Indeed, one of the purposes of industry investigations is to provide the agency with increased expertise in administering the law by exposing it to the factual background of relevant industries against which to judge individual mergers and acquisitions.
Likewise, the fact that some of the Commissioners’ conclusions expressed in the Enforcement Policy were mirrored in the complaint does not prove prejudgment. The Enforcement Policy was openly cautious to phrase its conclusions tentatively.

. FTC v. Cement Institute, 333 U.S. 683, 701, 68 S.Ct. 793, 92 L.Ed. 1010 (1948) (Court used judicial analogy in the course of holding that Commission’s expression of opinion on legality of a particular trade practice did not disqualify it from passing upon the lawfulness of the practice in an adjudicatory proceeding).

. Laird v. Tatum, 409 U.S. 824, 93 S.Ct. 7, 34 L.Ed.2d 50 (1972).

. “The great tides and currents which engulf the rest of men do not turn aside in their course, and pass the judges by.” B. N. Cardozo, The Nature of the Judicial Process 167-68 (1921). “[A] judge is not prevented from sitting because he comes into every case with a background of general personal experiences and beliefs.” In re Union Leader Corp., 292 F.2d 381, 388 (1st Cir. 1961). See In re J. P. Linahan, Inc., 138 F.2d 650 (2d Cir. 1943), for Judge Frank’s wide-ranging discussion, distinguishing between the need for disinterestedness in courts, as essential to democracy, and the presence of preconceptions and attitudes which are inevitable. The opinion urges self-scouting as to uniquely personal prejudices. It concludes that a referee is not disqualified from conducting a trial because he earlier came to a judgment that was reversed.
See also Price v. Johnston, 125 F.2d 806, 811 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 316 U.S. 677, 62 S.Ct. 1106, 86 L.Ed. 1750 (1942), rejecting disqualification under 28 U.S.C. § 25, when the allegations “do not indicate a ‘personal’ prejudice or bias against the accused, but charge an impersonal prejudice, and go to the judge’s background and associations rather than his appraisal of the defendant personally.”

. United States v. Haldeman, 181 U.S.App.D.C. 254, 358, 559 F.2d 31, 135ff. (D.C.Cir.1976) (Judge Sirica’s statement in a television interview, at the time of the 1974 Judicial Conference, that defendants “can get just as fair a trial in the District of Columbia as any federal court,” did not reflect “inability or indisposition on the judge’s part to objectively weigh and act upon a request to relocate the place of trial should it develop that an unbiased jury could not be assembled in the District of Columbia.”

. See 15 U.S.C. § 57a(e) providing that an interested person may file a petition “for judicial review” of a rule, not later than 60 days after a rule is promulgated by the Federal Trade Commission. Section 57a(e)(5)(B) provides:
The United States Court of Appeals shall have exclusive jurisdiction of any action to obtain judicial review (other than in an enforcement proceeding) of a rule prescribed under subsection (a)(1)(B) of this section, if any district court of the United States would have jurisdiction of such action but for this subparagraph.

. Boire v. Greyhound Corp., 376 U.S. 473, 481, 84 S.Ct. 894, 11 L.Ed.2d 849 (1964) (no jurisdiction to enjoin a representation election; In Switchmen’s Union v. National Mediation Board, 320 U.S. 297, 64 S.Ct. 95, 88 L.Ed. 61 (1943), the Court held Congress precluded review of a representation decision of the National Mediation Board.

. C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure: Jurisdiction § 3553 at 387 (1975); 9 Moore’s Federal Practice ¶ 110.13(10] at 187-188 (2d ed. 1975), cited in Judge Tamm’s opinion at note 10.

. Action Realty Co. v. Will, 427 F.2d 843 (7th Cir. 1970); Green v. Murphy, 259 F.2d 591 (3d Cir. 1958).

. Greater Boston TV Corp. v. FCC (I), 143 U.S.App.D.C. 383, 444 F.2d 841 (1970).

. The 1972 decision in Fitzgerald is not pertinent because the “final” agency order in that case.would have been reviewable in the district court.

. Internat’l Bro. of Teamsters v. Bro. of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks, 131 U.S.App.D.C. 55, 64, 402 F.2d 196, 205, cert. denied, 393 U.S. 848, 89 S.Ct. 135, 21 L.Ed.2d 119 (1968).

. The doctrine is established by a number of precedents. See Secretary of Navy v Avrech, 418 U.S. 676, 677-78, 94 S.Ct. 3039, 41 L.Ed.2d 1033 (1974); United States v. Augenblick, 393 U.S. 348, 351-52, 89 S.Ct. 528, 21 L.Ed.2d 537 (1969); Ripon Society v. National Republican Party, 173 U.S.App.D.C. 350, 361 n.28, 525 F.2d 567, 578 n.28 (1975) (en banc), cert. denied, 424 U.S. 933, 96 S.Ct. 1147, 1148, 47 L.Ed.2d 341 (1976).

. Great Northern Ry. Co. v. Sunburst Oil & Refining Co., 287 U.S. 358, 53 S.Ct. 145, 77 L.Ed. 360 (1932).

. The district court ruling issued November 3, 1978. Association of Nat’l Advertisers v. FTC, 460 F.Supp. 996 (D.D.C.1978).