Subject: [citizensoftheUnitedStatesofAmerica_news] Admin Cts. vs. Leg
Courts.
I have been reading several cases on "private rights" and "public rights"
doctrine. The public rights doctrine in reality is BS, which the author
concluded basically in this area. I just finished reading the 1983 Duke L.J.
197 (1983) law review in which the author does a long discussion of the public
rights and one of the conclusions included is the Supreme Ct stating we have
moved away from the true Article III courts for so long that it is to late to
go back. I have a major problem with that one as my constitutionally secured
rights are not subject to tyranny, even it is has been 150 years getting to
where we are today.
I have included a part that I found very interesting in understanding the
administrative agencies. In reality, a legislative court and an
administrative agency are one, but one can enforce and the other one can't .
the author is discussing the impact of Northern
Pipeline Constr. Co. v. Marathon Pipeline Co., 102 S. Ct. 2858, 2881 (1982),
The primary functional distinction between the
work of administrative agencies and that of legislative courts is that unlike
courts, agencies*217 generally cannot issue automatically enforceable orders.
Rather, agencies often, though not always,
[FN130] must seek
enforcement in an article
III court.
[FN131] Upon initial examination, one might
conclude that the distinction is a significant one; the essential
attribute of the exercise of judicial power might well be deemed the ability
to issue and enforce orders. As a practical matter, however,
elevating this distinction to a status of constitutional significance places
form over substance. When an agency seeks enforcement of an order in
federal court, the court is required by both statute
[FN132] and precedent
[FN133] to defer to the
findings and conclusions of the agency.
[FN134] Such deference is logical, in light
of the accepted principle that one purpose of administrative agencies is to
have decisions made by those with the necessary expertise in the regulated
subject matter. [FN135]
But one may question whether there is any difference, in terms of satisfying
the article III
provisions, between the requirement that the non-article
III agency seek enforcement in an
article III court where that agency's
findings are subject to a minimal level of review, and the roughly comparable
appellate review of the automatically enforceable orders of a bankruptcy or
other legislative court. The only practical difference is that in the
former situation, the inertia of the initial decision lies in favor of the
party that loses before the agency: if no further legal action takes place
following issuance of the agency's order, that losing party will not be
required to comply. In the case of the legislative court,
however, the burden will be on the losing party to seek further legal action
if it wishes to avoid forced compliance. But considering that it
would be an absurd waste of agency time, expense, and effort to conduct an
adjudicatory proceeding absent a plan to automatically take the comparatively
simple step of seeking judicial enforcement (absent voluntary compliance), the
distinction appears considerably more theoretical than real.
[FN136] In both situations, the non-article
III body conducts the
primary adjudication, makes the basic *218 legal and factual findings, and is
subject to some level of review in an
article III court.
[FN131].
Orders of the National Labor Relations Board, for example, are not
automatically enforceable. See
NLRB v. Marsh Supermarkets, Inc., 327 F.2d 109, 112 (7th Cir.),
cert. denied, 377 U.S.
944 (1963);
29 U.S.C. ß 160(e) (1976).
('The Board shall have power to petition any court [of appeals or district
court] . . . for the enforcement of such order . . ..')
[FN132].
E.g., 29 U.S.C. ß
160(e) (1976).
[FN133].
E.g., NLRB v. Bradford
Dyeing Ass'n, 310 U.S. 318, 342-43 (1940).
[FN134].
See, e.g., Local 13,
Detroit Newspaper Printing & Graphic Communications Union v. NLRB, 598 F.2d
267, 272 (D.C. Cir. 1979).
[FN135].
See id.; cf. FCC v. RCA
Communications, 346 U.S. 86 (1953).
[FN136].
In a sense, voluntary compliance is analogous to a losing party's decision not
to seek appellate review of a lower court's order.
Rather that attach this as I have been posting a lot, if anyone wants it -
e-mail me privately.
Ralph