Court Opinion

ID: 9430251
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:29:20.69446+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:23.907332
License: Public Domain

Justice Stevens,
concurring in the judgment.
The fact that remission procedures are not constitutionally required, ante, at 249-250, does not shed any light on the question whether the Government has an obligation to process remission petitions with reasonable diligence. For even though it was not obligated to do so, Congress has enacted legislation authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to create such a procedure. The importance of this statutory procedure is underlined by the fact that it is used to resolve almost 50,000 claims every year. Its practical significance is also suggested by the fact that the number of at least partially successful claimants in remission proceedings is triple the number that come away emptyhanded. This record indicates that the remission petition is a principal mechanism for resolving the dispute between the Government and the individual that frequently results from the seizure of property at our borders.
*253When Congress authorizes a member of the Cabinet to establish a procedure of this importance to thousands of individuals, it surely intends that the procedure will be administered in a regular and fundamentally fair way. One element of fair procedure is a requirement of reasonable diligence in processing claims. Absent clear evidence to the contrary, I would therefore construe the statute as implicitly commanding the Secretary to act diligently, and would not speculate about the possibility that a wholly arbitrary remission procedure would comply with the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.*
Nevertheless, I agree with the Court’s ultimate conclusion that on this record respondent has not demonstrated that the 36-day delay in responding to his petition was unlawful. I therefore concur in the judgment.

The Government concedes that, at least before the Customs Service acts on a remission petition, Congress has intended that the timeliness of the Government’s response be fully reviewable. See Brief for United States 25, n. 20 (“A claimant is not powerless ... to obtain a speedy resolution of the question of his interest in the property. If delay in processing the administrative petition for remission or mitigation is unreasonable under the Administrative Procedure Act, the claimant may file suit to attempt to compel the agency to act. 5 U. S. C. 706(1)”).