Justia U.S. D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

Petitioners challenged two sets of orders issued by the Commission regarding a scarcity pricing mechanism in the New England power market. The DC Circuit held that the exhaustion requirements of the Federal Power Act (FPA), 16 U.S.C. 824d, deprived it of jurisdiction over the petition to review the Tariff Order. Therefore, the court dismissed the petition in Case No. 16-1023. The court held, on the merits, that the Commission was not arbitrary or capricious in denying petitioners' complaint and thus denied the petition in Case No. 16-1024 seeking review of the Complaint Order. View "New England Power Generators Association v. FERC" on Justia Law

Commercial truck drivers and their industry association filed suit claiming that they were injured by the Department's violation of its statutory obligation to ensure the accuracy of a database containing driver-safety information. In Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 136 S. Ct. 1540 (2016), the Supreme Court held that Article III standing requires a concrete injury even in the context of a statutory violation. The DC Circuit held that, under Spokeo, the asserted injury was, by itself, insufficiently concrete to confer Article III standing to plaintiffs. However, the court reversed with respect to two drivers whose information was released to prospective employers because dissemination of inaccurate driver-safety data inflicts an injury sufficiently concrete to confer standing to seek damages. View "Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association v. DOT" on Justia Law

The DC Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment to the Department in an action challenging the Department's decision to take a tract of land into trust for the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians and authorized it to operate a casino there. The court held that the North Fork was an Indian tribe for which the Department had authority to acquire trust land under the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA). The court rejected plaintiffs' claims that the Department's trust decision violated the IRA, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act. The court viewed the same extensive record and afforded the appropriate measure of deference to the Department's supportable judgments and concluded that its decisions were reasonable and consistent with applicable law. View "Stand Up For California! v. DOI" on Justia Law

The DC Circuit reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Clarian in an action challenging the legality of HHS's decision to set forth certain policies regarding the means of calculating reimbursements for Medicare providers in an instruction manual without engaging in notice and comment rulemaking. The court held that the Manual instructions embodied a general statement of policy, not a legislative rule, setting forth HHS's enforcement priorities; policy statements did not establish binding norms; they were not "rules" that must be issued through notice and comment rulemaking; nor were the instructions subject to the Medicare Act's independent notice and comment requirement because they did not establish or change a substantive legal standard. Therefore, neither the Administrative Procedure Act nor the Medicare Act required that the Manual instructions be established by regulation. View "Clarian Health West, LLC v. Hargan" on Justia Law

President Trump, by executive order issued in May 2017, established the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. EPIC filed suit against the Commission and others, alleging violations of the Administrative Procedure Act and sought a preliminary injunction to prohibit defendants from collecting voter data unless and until they complete a privacy impact assessment as allegedly required by the E-Government Act of 2002. The district court concluded that EPIC had standing and denied a preliminary injunction. The DC Circuit affirmed, but based on a different conclusion than that of the district court. The court upheld the denial of preliminary injunction because EPIC did not show a substantial likelihood of standing to press its claims that defendants have violated the E-Government Act. In this case, EPIC has suffered no informational or organizational injury. View "Electronic Privacy Information Center v. Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity" on Justia Law

Relator filed a quit tam action under the False Claims Act against Chase, alleging that Chase falsely claimed compliance with a Settlement. Relator also alleged that Chase falsely claimed compliance with the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). The DC Circuit disagreed with the district court's conclusion that plaintiff was required to exhaust his contentions pursuant to the procedures of the Settlement. However, the court affirmed the dismissal of the claims regarding the Settlement on a related basis. In this case, the Monitor was aware of the practices and concluded that Chase was in compliance. To the extent that relator vaguely alleged that Chase sought credit for loans that otherwise did not qualify for relief under the Settlement, the complaint nowhere identified any ineligible loan Chase submitted for credit, alleged that the Monitor was unaware of any such loan's disqualifying characteristics, or claimed that the cumulative value of any such loans exceeded the $250 million buffer. Finally, the court agreed with the district court that relator failed to state a claim that Chase falsely certified HAMP compliance because he did not allege, with factual allegations in support, that the certifications were materially false. View "United States ex rel. Schneider v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A." on Justia Law

The district court granted Dana-Farber partial summary judgment, agreeing that Dana-Farber was entitled to full reimbursement of Medicare's share of a tax paid and vacating the Board's decision. At issue was the Board's interpretation of two regulations expounding upon the statutory directive to reimburse only reasonable costs actually incurred. The DC Circuit reversed the district court's judgment, holding that the Board's interpretation was reasonable and Dana-Farber failed to show otherwise — much less that the interpretation violated the Administrative Procedure Act — and thus the court appropriately deferred to it. View "Dana Farber Cancer Institute v. Hargan" on Justia Law

The DC Circuit affirmed the Service's 2014 and 2015 findings that information concerning the size of the Zimbabwean elephant population and status of conservation efforts in Zimbabwe did not support a conclusion that killing the animal would enhance the survival of the species. The court rejected appellants' contention that the Service erred because it applied a standard that was more stringent than the "enhance" standard in the Service's regulation. However, the court reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the Service on a claim under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. 553, because the Service erred in adopting the findings without first following the notice-and-comment rulemaking requirements of the APA. The court remanded with instructions. View "Safari Club International v. Zinke" on Justia Law

Before the DC Circuit's decision in Albany Engineering Corp. v. FERC, 548 F.3d 1071 (D.C. Cir. 2008), parallel federal and New York state regulatory regimes required downstream hydroelectric facilities to reimburse their headwater counterparts for certain costs. Albany changed that dual-track regulatory scheme by holding that the New York State assessment regime was preempted by section 10(f) of the Federal Power Act (FPA), which entitled the District to recover only "interest, maintenance, and depreciation" costs. In the wake of Albany, Erie petitioned FERC to credit it for costs the District had assessed it in excess of the federally mandated costs. The Commission denied Erie's request and denied a rehearing, based on its determining that Erie and the District had formally settled their state law dispute over headwater charges in 2006. The DC Circuit denied Erie's petition to vacate the Commission's orders, rejecting Erie's contention that the Commission's two 2015 orders ran contrary to section 10(f) of the FPA; the 2006 Settlement; the Commission's regulations; and a "legion of prior, unchallenged Commission orders." View "Erie Boulevard Hydropower, LP v. FERC" on Justia Law

Plaintiffs challenged Maryland's proposed "Purple Line" light rail project under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 49 U.S.C. 5309. The DC Circuit reversed the district court's order directing the preparation of a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) and vacated the Record of Decision, holding that the circumstances warranted deference by the court to FTA's (and Maryland's) reasonable, fact-intensive, technical determination that preparation of a SEIS was not required. The court affirmed the district court's order rejecting three challenges to the final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) presented on appeal, holding that the NEPA process adopted by FTA and Maryland for the Purple Line — an enormously complex project involving coordination between multiple government and private actors — fulfilled NEPA's purposes. View "Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail v. FTA" on Justia Law