Whitman v. American Trucking Associations, Inc. v. EPA case brief

Whitman v. American Trucking Associations, Inc. v. EPA case brief

v First D.C. Circuit Opinion:

v EPA’s construction of Clean Water Act provisions (authorizing EPA to promulgate regulations establishing standards for air pollutants) renders them an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power

v Although EPA used reasonable factors, it articulated no intelligible principle to guide application of those factors (reading “requisite” just to mean it leads to less pollution)

v Rationales for nondelegation doctrine:

o    Keep standards from being arbitrary

o    Increase chance of meaningful judicial review being feasible

o    *Make sure important policy choices are made by Congress

v Risk/benefit analysis would be intelligible principle

v Dissent – there was intelligible principle in setting standards requisite to public health and if court finds that agency didn’t follow those standards, that’s for a&c review, not a delegation issue

v Second D.C. Circuit Opinion

v Not for court to choose among permissible interpretations of an ambiguous principle (Chevron) – can’t decide if it’s an intelligible principle until it’s applied

v Supreme Court Opinion

v Not a violation of nondelegation doctrine

v A limiting agency construction cannot cure nondelegation problem – that’s silly

v However, the scope of discretion allowed here (“requisite for public health”) is well within outer limits of nondelegation precedents [Court has sustained much worse than this]

v Thomas concurrence: no delegation of legislative power; intelligible principle shouldn’t always cure when there is such a delegation (Formalist Approach)

v Stevens concurrence: Vesting clause doesn’t prevent delegation of legislative power; intelligible principle is enough of a check (Functionalist Approach)

o    Constitution-based objections to this view

§ Getting laws made is supposed to require bicameralism and presentment

§ Electoral accountability of Congress eroded with delegation to agency (or is it?)