Amicus Curiae Brief — U.S. Army Corp of Eng'rs v. Hawkes Co., 136 S. Ct. 615 (2015) (No. 15-290)
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No. 15-290
IN THE
Supreme Court of the United States
-—_—— - @--- ----
UNITED STATES ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS,
Petitioner.
Vv
HAWKES CoO., INC., ET AL.,
Respondents.
- —-- -—~ @--
On Writ of Certiorari to the United States
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
—~—— --- @ —- —
BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE
OHIO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE,
COLORADO MINING ASSOCIATION,
AND OHIO COAL ASSOCIATION
IN SUPPORT OF RESPONDENTS
—— -¢o-—
J. VAN CARSON
Counsel of Record
KAREN A. WINTERS
DOUGLAS A. MCWILLIAMS
ROBERT D. CHEREN
DANELLE M. GAGLIARDI
SQUIRE PATTON Bocas (US) LLP
4900 Key Tower
127 Public Square
Cleveland, Ohio 44114
(216) 479-8559
March 2016 van.carson@squirepb.com
i
CONTENTS
INTERESTS OF THE AMICI CURIAE ............2..0.000000000000 1
BROADER QUESTION PRESENTED ......................000.00004 4
SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT ....00..0..........00:0000eeeseeeees 5
| SEES ERIDETSESE ESE Reuse ne cee Tee REDE I 8
I. The government’s position jeopardizes
judicial review of interpretative rules. ........ 8
II. Formal and definitive interpretative rules
are final actions subject to judicial review. .14
A. The Administrative Procedure Act expressly
permits judicial review of interpretative rules. ..14
B. The PPG Industries decision establishes that
final interpretative rules are agency actions
subject to judicial review. ..............cccccccceeceeceeeeees 18
C. Judicial review of interpretative rules is not
ETS: Snes ee a eee 21
III. The Bennett decision did not overrule the
Court’s decision in PPG Industries and did
not render interpretative rules immune
from judicial review. ....................cc.cccccccceseeee 23
A. The Bennett decision merely distinguished
Franklin and Dalton without imposing a
universal test for final actions. ....................000--+++ 23
B. The American Truc’:ing decision already
rejected the government’s attempt to rely on
Bennett to foreclose judicial review of
Da eecieebannid 25
C. The Sackett decision clarified that the Bennett
decision outlines “hallmarks” of finality, not
requirements for final actions. ..............2...0000.000+ 27
il
IV. A decision immunizing interpretative
rules from judicial review would permit
regulation by administrative fiat................. 29
V. The government’s brief wrongly suggests
the Corps will stop providing jurisdictional
determinations as if the agency can ignore
petitions requesting interpretative rules,
contrary to the requirements of the
Administrative Procedure Act...................... 32
RAE IS RRR Rk a ee CO Le ee, 34
li
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
Cases
Abbott Laboratories v. Garner
gS, _, IEEE ETS 12-13
Bowen v. Massachusetts
TT Sean C ERNE eS 12
Bennett v. Spear
ee 23-27
Dalton v. Specter
ee csuineemesounele 23-24
Franklin v. Massachusetts
I a iceilal 15, 23-24
General Motors Corp. v. Ruckelshaus
742 F.2d 1561 (D.C. Cir. 1984) (en banc)........... 22
Harrison v. PPG Industries, Inc.
es Ce ED ccccecetcccecccccsesecenes 3, 5, 18-21, 26
Heckler v. Ringer
ner Mee man Asoo neeCer 12
Independent Bankers Ass’n v. Smith
634 F.2a 921 (D.C. Cir. 1976) ........00.cccccccsccccevesees 22
Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment, LLC
I 18
Nat'l Automatic Laundry & Cleaning Council v. Shultz
443 F.2d 689 (D.C. Cir. 1971)........0..0c. ce. 21-22
Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Ass’n
135 S. Ct. 1199 (2015)........8, 14, 17-18, 26, 29-30
Port of Boston Marine Terminal Ass'n v.
Rederiaktiebolaget Transatlantic
I iiictetinisceristnnincnmntnepeieiaiondts 21, 24
iv
Sackett v. EPA
I 27, 30-31
Shalala v. Guernsey Memorial Hosp.
ES Eh Ree 8
United States v. Morton Salt Co.
RETEST SER ree 29
Whitman v. Am. Trucking Ass’ns, Inc.
SE I CD oielcccccsuisoesecsciocss 3, 5, 18, 25-26
Statutes
Administrative Procedure Act
SR SI Ea 9, 14, 18, 20, 32
| ESTES nena Ere 9, 17, 32
| RTE nara neanO Ce Ese ROT ie, 33
I le 14-15, 25, 33
| ET a 14—15, 20, 24—25
| TC a a En ERIS Dee 33
Pub. L. No. 79-404, § 10(c)
I i ciliesnaiibil 16
Regulations
I 8
Other Authorities
Brief for Petititioners
Whitman v. Am. Trucking Ass’ns, Inc.
531 U.S. 457 (2001) (No. 99-1257)................. 25-27
Brief for the American Hospital Association, et al.
as Amici Curiae
Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Ass’n
135 S. Ct. 1199 (2015) (No. 13-1041)... 10
Vv
Brief for the Cato Institute, et al. as Amici Curiae
Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Ass’n
135 S. Ct. 1199 (2015) (No. 13-1041)................... 10
Brief for the Center for Constitutional
Jurisprudence as Amicus Curiae
Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Ass’n
135 S. Ct. 1199 (2015) (No. 13-1041)...........0....... 10
Brief for the Chamber of Commerce of the United
States of America, et al. as Amici Curiae
Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Ass’n
135 S. Ct. 1199 (2015) (No. 13-1041)...........0....... 10
Brief for the National Federation of Independent
Businesses, et al. as Amici Curiae
Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Ass’n
135 S. Ct. 1199 (2015) (No. 13-1041)............... 9-10
Brief for the National Mining Association as
Amicus Curiae
Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Ass’n
135 S. Ct. 1199 (2015) (No. 13-1041)........00.0000...... 9
Brief for the State and Local Government
Associations as Amici Curiae
Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Ass’n
135 S. Ct. 1199 (2015) (No. 13-1041)... 10
Brief for the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public
Policy as Amicus Curiae
Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Ass’n
135 S. Ct. 1199 (2015) (No. 13-1041)............. 10-11
Final Report of the Attorney General’s Committee
on Administrative Procedure
FREES I SE Rs ol POPS ROO RD CSE 8-9, 17
S. REP No. 79-752
SESS ICSE ROA SS eno ae ee oe MT ROM 31
vi
Transcript of Oral Argument
Sackett v. EPA
132 S. Ct. 1367 (2012) (No. 10-1062)
1
INTERESTS OF THE AMICI CURIAE
The Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the Colorado
Mining Association, and the Ohio Coal Association
respectfully submit this amici curiae brief in support
of respondents.”
Founded in 1893, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce
(Ohio Chamber) is Ohio’s largest and most diverse
business advocacy organization. It works to promote
and protect the interests of its more than 8,000
business members and the thousands of Ohioans
they employ while building a more favorable Ohio
business climate. As an independent point of contact
for government and business leaders, the Ohio
Chamber is a respected participant in the public
policy arena.
The Ohio Coal Association (OCA) is a non-profit
trade association dedicated to representing the
interests of Ohio’s underground and surface coal
producers. The OCA represents nearly all of Ohio’s
coal producers and more than 50 associate members,
which include suppliers and consultants to the
mining industry, coal sales agents and brokers, and
allied industries. The Ohio Coal Association is
committed to advancing the development and
utilization of Ohio coal as an abundant, affordable,
and environmentally sound energy source.
* No counsel for a party authored this brief in whole or in
part, and no person or entity other than amici made any
monetary contribution to the preparation and submission of
this brief. The parties have docketed blanket consents to the
filing of amicus briefs.
2
The Colorado Mining Association (CMA), founded
in 1876, is a trade association formed under section
501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code whose nearly
1,000 members include the producers of coal, metals,
agricultural and industrial minerals throughout
Colorado and the west; as well as equipment
manufacturers, engineering, consulting and other
vendors and service providers to the industry. CMA
members generate nearly $3 billion in production
value alone in Colorado and the mining industry
accounts for nearly 75,000 jobs in the state. CMA’s
mission is to promote the general health and welfare
of the industry before legislatures, regulatory
agencies, the courts, and other policy forums, while
working to educate and raise public awareness of the
importance of mining and mineral products.
As respondents have observed, the government’s
position in this case that “final agency action” must
impose “independent’ legal consequences” threatens
to “preclude judicial review of most, if not all,
interpretive or declaratory decisions and eviscerate
the [Administrative Procedure] Act.” Res. Br. at 21.
In particular, the government’s position would bar
preenforcement review of statements by agencies that
interpret statutes and regulations. Such statements
are “interpretative rules” that can be issued without
public notice and comment and have powerful effects.
Amici are interested in preserving the rights of
their members to preenforcement judicial review of
interpretative rules. A decision by the Court that
adopts the government’s threshold position that
immediate “independent’ legal consequences” are
required for agency action to be “final” and subject to
judicial review would leave amici’s members without
recourse against agency fiats that threaten large
3
projects and investments. Accordingly, amici submit
this brief in support of respondents to demonstrate
that the government’s threshold position is contrary
to the Administrative Procedure Act and the decisions
by the Court which establish that interpretative rules
are subject to immediate judicial review when they
are issued. Harrison v. PPG Industries, Inc., 446 U.S.
578, 586 (1980); Whitman v. Am. Trucking Ass’ns,
Inc., 531 U.S. 457, 478-79 (2001).
In addition, amici address the suggestion that the
Corps would respond to an adverse decision in this
case by ignoring future petitions for jurisdictional
determinations. That would violate the requirements
of the Administrative Procedure Act that agencies
permit and reasonably consider interpretative rule
petitions, in disregard of the rights of amici’s members.
4
BROADER QUESTION PRESENTED
Whether interested persons are entitled to obtain
preenforcement judicial review of formal and definitive
statements by agencies that interpret statutes and
regulations.
5
SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT
The approved jurisdictional determination issued
by the Army Corps of Engineers in this case is
indisputably an interpretative rule. The Court has
held that interpretative rules are subject to judicial
review if they constitute “final agency action.”
Harrison v. PPG Industries, Inc., 446 U.S. 578, 586
(1980); Whitman v. Am. Trucking Ass’ns, Inc., 531
U.S. 457, 478-79 (2001). The government claims that
an approved jurisdictional determination is not a
“final agency action” because it does not itself
“determine legal rights or obligations or impose
legal consequences.” Pet. Br. at 17. The government
misapplies the Court’s decision in Bennett v. Spear in
claiming such a narrow definition of final agency
action. In fact, the government’s argument would
foreclose judicial review of any interpretative rule,
which by definition does not determine legal rights or
obligations and does not impose legal consequences.
This is a critical case because interpretative rules do
not require public notice and comment, leaving
judicial review as the last check on this class of
agency actions.
This is the government’s third attempt to have
the Court establish a total bar against judicial
review of interpretative rules. This attempt should
fare no better than its predecessors because the
Administrative Procedure Act and the decisions of
the Court provide for judicial review of agency
interpretative rules. The Act defines its terms so that
“final agency action” includes agency statements that
interpret law. While such statements are exempt
from the notice and comment requirement, the Act
conspicuously does not exempt interpretative rules
from judicial review The Court decided the question
6
in PPG Industries by holding an interpretative rule
qualified as a final agency action subject to judicial
review. The government offers no justification for
reading a judicial review exemption into the Act and
departing from settled precedent.
The government’s argument chiefly depends on a
misreading of the Bennett v. Spear decision as
placing severe restrictions on what constitutes a
final agency action. The government ignores the
Court’s subsequent rebuke of this argument in the
American Trucking decision and further ignores the
Court’s clarification in the Sackett decision that the
so-called Bennett “prongs” are merely convenient
“hallmarks of finality,” not requirements.
In short, the government’s position is contrary to
the Administrative Procedure Act’s text, foreclosed
by the Court’s decision in PPG Industries, and has no
support in the Court’s decision in Bennett.
This case has broad and important implications.
The government asks the Court to establish in its
decision that Congress has foreclosed judicial review
completely for an entire class of agency actions
for which “there is no other adequate remedy in a
court” so long as the agency technically has not
“determine([d] legal rights or obligations, or impose[d]
legal consequences.” Pet. Br. at 17 The Court is
asked to deny judicial review no matter how high
the stakes are and regardless of whether the agency
has committed an egregious and coercive overreach.
Immunizing interpretative rules from judicial review
would give executive agencies unbridled power to
“say what the law is” without judicial review
unless and until agencies implement or enforce their
legal interpretations in an enforcement action or
final permitting decision.
7
Finally, the government wrongly intimates the
Corps will stop issuing jurisdictional determinations
if the Court holds they are subject to judicial review.
Agencies issue many interpretative rules today
undeterred by the availability of judicial review.
Further, the Administrative Procedure Act requires
agencies to permit and reasonably consider petitions
requesting interpretative rules. The Corps cannot
categorically refuse petitions from landowners re-
questing jurisdictional determinations, regardless of
whether judicial review is available.
8
ARGUMENT
I. The government’s position jeopardizes
judicial review of interpretative rules.
This case concerns a highly important question of
administrative law: whether interested persons are
entitled to obtain preenforcement judicial review of
statements issued by agencies that interpret statutes
and regulations.
Interpretative rules “are issued by an agency to
advise the public of the agency’s construction of the
statutes and rules which it administers.” Perez v.
Mortgage Bankers Ass’n, 135 S. Ct. 1199, 1204
(2015). Interpretative rules “do not have the force
and effect of law.” Jd. at 1204 (quoting Shalala v.
Guernsey Memorial Hospital, 514 U.S. 87, 99 (1995)).
While they are statements “of an advisory character
indicating merely the agency’s present belief,” they
have “considerable importance” because “customarily
they are accepted as determinative by the public at
large” and “courts will be influenced by the
administrative opinion.” Final Report of the Attorney
General’s Committee on Administrative Procedure 27
(1941).
An approved jurisdictional determination is an
interpretative rule “stating the presence or absence
of waters of the United States on a parcel or a
written statement and map identifying the limits of
waters of the United States on a parcel.” 33 C.F.R.
§ 331.2.
Interpretative rules come in two contexts. First,
they are issued by agencies in response “to inquiries
from potentially regulated parties.” Pet Br. at 23; see
Final Report of the Attorney General’s Committee on
9
Administrative Procedure 27 (1941) (“[O]ften they
are made as a consequence of individual requests for
rulings upon particular questions ”). Second,
they are issued on an agency’s own accord. While the
interprefative rule in this case is of the former kind,
the government does not argue that reviewability
depends on whether or not the interpretative rule
was issued sua sponte.
Interpretative rules have an expedited procedural
path because the Administrative Procedure Act
exempts the formulation, amendment, and repeal of
agency interpretative rules from the requirement to
give advance notice and take public comments.
5 U.S.C. § 553(b)(3)(A); 5 U.S.C. § 551(5). In addition,
the Administrative Procedure Act requires agencies
to “give an interested person the right to petition for
the issuance, amendment, or repeal of a rule” and
that this extends to a rule that is a “statement of
particular applicability and future effect designed to
interpret law” 5U.S.C. § 553(e); 5 U.S.C.
§ 551(4). Through these provisions, Congress fostered
the issuance of interpretative rules.
As demonstrated in the briefing before the Court
in Mortgage Bankers l\ast term, interpretative rules
frequently address highly significant legal issues and
have enormous ramifications. Brief for the National
Mining Association as Amicus Curiae at 18—26, Perez
vu. Mortgage Bankers Ass’n, 135 S. Ct. 1199 (2015)
(No. 13-1041); Brief for the National Federation of
Independent Businesses, et al. as Amici Curiae at
14-22, Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Ass’n, 135 S. Ct.
10
1199 (2015) (No. 13-1041);' Brief for American
Hospital Association, et al. as Amici Curiae at 16-20,
Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Ass’n, 135 S. Ct. 1199
(2015) (No. 13-1041);? Brief for the Chamber of
Commerce of the United States of America, et al. as
Amici Curiae at 10-22, Perez v. Mortgage Bankers
Ass’n, 135 S. Ct. 1199 (2015) (No. 13-1041);' Brief for
the Cato Institute, et al. as Amici Curiae at 19, Perez
v. Mortgage Bankers Ass’n, 135 S. Ct. 1199 (2015)
(No. 13-1041);* Brief for the Center for Constitutional
Jurisprudence as Amicus Curiae at 11-15, Perez v.
Mortgage Bankers Ass’n, 135 S. Ct. 1199 (2015) (No.
13-1041); Brief for the State and Local Government
Associations as Amici Curiae, at 13—15, Perez uv.
Mortgage Bankers Ass’n, 135 S. Ct. 1199 (2015) (No.
13-1041);5 Brief for the Thomas Jefferson Institute
1. National Federation of Independent Businesses, American
Farm Bureau Federation, American Petroleum Institute,
National Association of Home Builders, and Retail Litigation
Center.
2. American Hospital Association, Association of American
Medical Colleges, and HealthCare Financial Management
Association.
3. Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America,
American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, American
Health Care Association, Business Roundtable, National
Association of Manufacturers, and Securities Industry and
Financial Markets Association.
4. Cato Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, and
Judicial Education Project.
5. National League of Cities, United States Conference of
Mayors, National Association of Counties, International
City/County Management Association, International
Municipal Lawyers Association, Government Finance
Officers Association, National School Boards Association,
National Public Employer Labor Relations Association, and
11
for Public Policy as Amicus Curiae at 4—5, Perez v.
Mortgage Bankers Ass’n, 135 S. Ct. 1199 (2015) (No.
13-1041).
The government down plays the importance of
jurisdictional determinations, but does not and could
not deny that agencies issue interpretative rules that
have significant and immediate effects on heavily
regulated industries. For example, the mining industry
is regulated by a host of federal agencies under a
number of statutory regimes that govern where
mining may occur, how mining facilities must be
designed, operated and constructed, and how mining
facilities must be closed and reclaimed at the end of
their operating life. The statutes and regulations are
beset with vagueness and ambiguity, and penalties
for less-than-perfect compliance are very substantial.
Federal agencies frequently send letters to mining
companies interpreting statutes and regulations that
apply to their operations and address significant
investment, business, and engineering decisions,
such as whether and how to expand operations.
The government also suggests interpretative rules
simply provide “useful” “information” and “incentive,”
Pet. Br. at 16-17, but in practice interpretative rules
in fact deliver commands and coercion. Indeed, a
mining company’s receipt of such a letter and
subsequent refusal to conform to the agency’s
interpretation will be offered as evidence of a willful
violation carrying more severe penalties. See Pet. Br.
at 32 (noting receipt of jurisdictional determination
could be offered as evidence to increase penalties).
International Public Management Association for Human
Resources.
12
In many regulatory contexts, the potential risks
of resisting an agency interpretative rule are not
limited to just civil penalties, but include potential
criminal sanctions as well.®
Having last term in Mortgage Bankers vindicated
the right of agencies to issue, amend, and repeal
interpretative rules without notice and comment,
now the government seeks to shrug off the vital
remaining check on the power of agencies to issue
interpretative rules with significant coercive effects:
the right of judicial review.
Congress intended “final agency action” to “cover
a broad spectrum of administrative actions.” Abbott
Laboratories v. Garner, 387 U.S. 136, 140 (1967);
Bowen v. Massachusetts, 487 U.S. 879, 903 (1988)
(the Act’s judicial review provision “should not be
construed to defeat the central purpose of providing a
broad spectrum of judicial review of agency action”);
Heckler v. Ringer, 466 U.S. 602, 645 (1984) (“In our
system of government under law, administrative
absolutism is not the rule, but only the narrow
exception.”); Transcript of Oral Argument at 40,
Sackett v. EPA, 132 S. Ct. 1367 (2012) (No. 10-1062)
(“(FJor 75 years the courts have interpreted statutes
with an eye towards permitting judicial review, not
the opposite.”); id. at 50 (“[T]he Government here
is fighting 75 years of practice.”).
6. E.g., 33 U.S.C. § 1319(c)}4(d) (Clean Water Act); 42 U.S.C.
§ 6928(d), (g) (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act); 42
U.S.C. § 7413(b(c) (Clean Air Act); 42 U.S.C. §§ 9603(b),
9609(c) (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compen-
sation, and Liability Act).
13
Contrary to this congressional intent, the govern-
ment in this case asks the Court to limit “final
agency action” to a narrow set of agency actions that
“determine legal rights or obligations, or impose
legal consequences,” Pet. Br. at 17. If the Court
accepts this argument, interpretative rules would be
immune from direct judicial review. The government
admits in its brief that this is the implication of its
position. Jd. at 33 (“In its lack of legal effect, an
affirmative jurisdictional determination is similar to
other statements communicating the agency’s
views about the proper application of relevant
statutory provisions to particular factual scenarios.”);
Id. at 34 (“[A] jurisdictional determination is no
different from the innumerable opinions that agencies
offer to assist regulated entities in understanding the
obligations imposed by the governing statute.”).
Despite the breadth of the claim, the government
“relies on no explicit statutory authority for its
argument that pre-enforcement review is unavailable”
for interpretative rules. Abbott Laboratories, 387 U.S.
at 141.
14
II. Formal and definitive interpretative rules
are final actions subject to judicial review.
A. The Administrative Procedure Act expressly
permits judicial review of interpretative rules.
In this case, just as in Mortgage Bankers last term,
“(t]he text of the APA answers the question presented.”
Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Ass’n, 135 S. Ct. 1199,
1206 (2015). The Act provides a “final agency action”
is “subject to judicial review” whenever “there is no
other adequate remedy in a court.” 5 U.S.C. § 704.
The text of the Act indicates that an “agency action”
is “final” if it is not “preliminary, procedural, or
intermediate.” Jd. The Act then defines the crucial
term “agency action” in relevant part to include
“the whole or a part of an agency rule,” §§ 551(13),
701(b)(2)’ and the word “rule” is broadly defined to
include “the whole or a part of an agency statement of
general or particular applicability and future effect
designed to interpret law.” §§ 551(4), 701(b)(2).*
7. In addition, the term “agency action” is defined to include
“the whole or part of an agency order, license, sanction,
relief, or the equivalent denial thereof, or failure to act.” Id.
8. In addition, the term “rule” is defined to include “the whole
or a part of an agency statement of general or particular
applicability and future effect designed toimplement law
or policy,” “interpret policy,” “prescribe law or policy,”
and statements “describing the organization, procedure, or
practice requirements of an agency and includes the
approval or prescription for the future of rates, wages,
corporate or financial structures or reorganizations thereof,
prices, facilities, appliances, services or allowances therefor
or of valuations, costs, or accounting, or practices bearing on
any of the foregoing.” /d.
15
The government admits issuance of an approved
jurisdictional determination “marks the culmination”
of a “distinct process” in which the Corps determines
and states its interpretation of the Clean Water Act
as it applies to a landowner’s property. Pet. Br. at 26.
The government does not claim the Corps’ action is
“preliminary, procedural, or intermediate.” 5 U.S.C.
§ 704. That should be the end of the matter; the
jurisdictional determination is a final agency action
under the Administrative Procedure Act.
The government’s argument is that an approved
jurisdictional determination is not “final agency action”
because “it does not impose legal consequences or alter
the recipient’s legal obligations.” Pet. Br. at 26.
The government would have the Court read an
implied exception into the term “agency action” that
would only apply when the phrase “agency action” is
used in the judicial review provision in order to cabin
the availability of judicial review to a more limited set
of actions. But limiting the scope of judicial review
under the Act and in certain cases is the job of
Congress, not the Court, and the limits Congress has
imposed already are adequate.
First, “agency” is defined to expressly exclude
Congress, courts of the United States, governments
of territories, possessions, and the District of
Columbia, courts martial, military commissions,
military authority exercised in time of war and in
occupied territory, and other entities for which
judicial review would not be appropriate. 5 U.S.C.
§ 701(b). Further, the Court has held the President is
not an “agency” that is subject to judicial review
under the Act. Franklin v. Massachusetts, 505 U.S.
788, 801 (1992). Thus, the judicial review provision
covers only “action” taken by an “authority of the
16
Government of the United States” that can properly
be subjected to judicial review, such as the Army
Corps of Engineers in this case.
Second, judicial review is not available for actions
that are “committed to agency discretion by law.”
5 U.S.C. § 701(a)(2). This important exclusion covers
a wide range of prosecutorial decisions and similar
discretionary judgments for which judicial review
would be inappropriate. The approved jurisdictional
determinations at issue in this case are not excluded
by this provision.
Third, judicial review is not available under the
Administrative Procedure Act if “statutes preclude
judicial review.” 5 U.S.C. § 701(a)(1). Thus, Congress
limits review in particular circumstances as needed.
The Clean Water Act at issue in this case does not
preclude judicial review.
Apart from these three textual limits, however,
Section 10(c) expressly extended judicial review to
“every final agency action for which there is no other
adequate remedy in any court.” Pub. L. No. 79-404,
§ 10(c), 60 Stat. 237, 243 (1947) (emphasis added).°
Had Congress intended that only a narrow subset of
“rules” and “agency actions” would be subject to
judicial review, Congress could easily have enacted
additional limits at the outset of the Act’s judicial
review provision in Section 10 with the others, but
Congress did not do so.’® In stark contrast, Congress
9. The 1966 codification of the Administrative Procedure Act
dropped the word “every” but did not change the substantive
meaning of the judicial review provision.
10.Notably, the 1966 codification that was prepared by the
House Judiciary Committee less than two decades after the
17
expressly provided interpretative rules are exempt
from the Act’s procedural requirement to provide
public notice and take public comments. 5 U.S.C.
§ 553(b)(3)(A); Mortgage Bankers, 135 S. Ct. at 1203.
Congress expressly decided that it was inappropriate
to mandate public notice-and-comment for issuance
of interpretative rules. At the same time, Congress
conspicuously chose not to exclude interpretative rules
from judicial review This is hardly suprising, for the
availability of judicial review of interpretative rules
was presumed at the time that the Administrative
Procedure Act was drafted. See Final Report of the
Attorney General’s Committee on Administrative
Procedure 27 (1941) (“[A]gencies find it useful from
time to time to issue interpretations of the statutes
under which they operate. These interpretations are
ordinarily of an advisory character, indicating merely
the agency’s present belief concerning the meaning of
applicable statutory language. They are not binding
upon those affected, for, if there is disagreement with
the agency’s view, the question may be presented for
determination by a court.” (emphasis added)).
passage of the Act expressly incorporates in the judicial
review chapter the definition of “agency action” and the
definition of “rule.” 5 U.S.C. § 701(bX2) (“rule’ and
‘agency action’ have the meanings given them by section
551”). This is all the more significant because the House
Judiciary Committee only adopted seven definitions in the
judicial review chapter, six of which together define the
scope of “agency action” subject to judicial review. /d.
The precise and specific adoption of these definitions in the
judicial review chapter reflect a shared understanding that
the scope of agency action subject to review is coextensive
with the scope of agency action subject to other provisions of
the Act except when statutes preclude judicial review and
when agency action is committed to agency discretion by law.
18
The breadth of the availability of judicial review
is a direct result of the statutory text. As the Court
has explained, “(t]he bite in the phrase” “final agency
action” “is not in the word ‘action,’ which is meant to
cover comprehensively every manner in which an
agency may exercise its power,” Whitman v. Am.
Trucking Ass’ns, Inc., 531 U.S. 457, 478 (2001), for
the word “action” is defined to include any “rule,”
and the term “rule” in the Act “is defined broadly
to include ‘statement(s] of general or particular
applicability and future effect’ that are designed to
‘implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy.”
Mortgage Bankers, 135 S. Ct. at 1203 (quoting
5 U.S.C. § 551(4)).
B. The PPG Industries decision establishes that
final interpretative rules are agency actions
subject to judicial review.
The Court in Harrison v. PPG Industries Inc.
established that the issuance of a final interpretative
rule is an agency action subject to judicial review.
Adopting the government’s position would require the
Court to reverse that decision. But even if the Court
“would decide [the issue] differently now than [the
Court] did then,” stare decisis dictates that Court
must adhere to its earlier decision unless the
government demonstrates a “special justification”
“over and above” merely claiming that it “was
wrongly decided.” Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment,
LLC, 135 S. Ct. 2401, 2409 (2015).
In PPG Industries, a chemical manufacturer had
“begi|u]n the planning and preliminary construction
of a new power generating facility” that included two
“waste-heat” boilers. Harrison v. PPG Iidustries,
Inc., 446 U.S. 578, 582 (1980). A dispute arose over
19
when the “construction” of the two boilers was
“commenced” for purposes of determining if they
were subject to a Clean Air Act new source standard
that was proposed after planning and preliminary
construction of the facility, and this depended on
interpeting Section 111(a)(2) of the Clean Air Act as
it applied to the particular facts. In addition, a
dispute arose over whether the boilers were “fossil
fuel-fired steam generators” within the scope of the
new source standard promulgated by EPA.
After the agency learned of the project and on the
agencys own accord, the EPA Regional Director
of Enforcement notified the chemical manufacturer
that he concluded “the boilers were subject to the
‘new source’ standards,’ since construction of the
boilers themselves had not begun until long after
the date on which the standards had been proposed”
even though “the boilers were part of an integretated
unit, the construction of which had begun before
the date of the standards.” Jd. After receiving a
response from the chemical manufacterer disputing
his conclusion, the Regional Director “reaffirmed
his initial decision.” Jd. The chemical manufacturer
then petitioned the agency seeking an amended
interpretative ruling that “construction” “commenced”
prior to proposal of the new source standard, and
also an interpretative ruling that the standard at
issue covering “fossil fuel-fired steam generators” did
“not apply to the type of boilers in question.” Jd. at 583.
The EPA Regional Adminstrator answered the petition
by letter and concluded that the two waste-heat boilers
were subject to the new source standard because the
standard applied to boilers of that type and because
the “construction” of the two boilers had “commenced”
after the proposal of the standard. Jd.
20
Thus, the agency issued two interpretative rules
that were “statement(s] of particular applicability
and future effect designed to interpret law,”
one interpreting and applying a statutory provision
and the other interpreting and applying a regulatory
provision. 5 U.S.C. § 551(4). The Court had little
trouble holding as a threshold question that the
interpretative rules were reviewable “final action’ as
that term is understood in the context of the
Administrative Procedure Act and other provisions of
federal law” because “the Administrator’s ruling
represented EPA’s final determination concerning
the applicability of the ‘new source’ standards to [the
chemical manufacturer’s] power facility” and “[(s]hort
of an enforcement action, EPA ha[d] rendered its last
word on the matter.” PPG Industries, 446 U.S. at
586. The Court did not apear in the least bit
“reluctant to hold” that EPA’s statements inter-
preting a statute and a regulation were “immediately
reviewable.” Cf. Pet. Br. at 23 (citing lower court
decisions evidencing reluctance).
Thus, the Court decided in PPG Industries that
an interpretative rule is subject to judicial review if
it is a “final determination” of the legal question at
issue and the agency has “rendered its last word on
the matter” “[s]hort of an enforcement action.” Jd.
This is consistent with the Act, under which judicial
review is accorded an interpretative rule that is not
“preliminary, procedural, or intermediate” because it
is a “final agency action” for which “there is no other
adequate remedy in a court.” 5 U.S.C. § 704.
Justice Stevens in his dissent offered a more
fulsome discussion of the reviewability of agency
interpretative rules. PPG Industries, 446 U.S. at
603-04 (Stevens, J. dissenting). As Justice Stevens
21
noted, the Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit had already held that formal
interpretative rules qualify as reviewable final
agency action. Jd. at 604 n.4 (citing Nat'l Automatic
Laundry & Cleaning Council v. Shultz, 443 F.2d 689
(D.C. Cir. 1971)). In that 1971 case, Judge Leventhal
examined the text of the Act and found Section 10
authorizes “judicial review of ‘final agency action,”
“the term ‘agency action’ includes ‘rule,’ and that in
turn is defined as ‘an agency statement of general
or particular applicability and future effect designed
to implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy,”
and “(t]he term ‘agency action’ thus embraces an
agency’s interpretation of its law.” Nat? Automatic
Laundry & Cleaning Council, 443 F.2d at 698."
The Court in PPG Industries reached the same result
nine years later.
The Court’s holding in PPG Industries is entitled
to the utmost respect because nothing suggests that
the issue was wrongly decided.
C. Judicial review of interpretative rules is not
unduly disruptive.
History does not support the government’s claims
that judicial review of interpretative rules is unduly
disruptive. The Court’s 1980 PPG Industries decision
and the earlier Court of Appeals decision reaching
11.Judge Leventhal further observed the Court had ruled the
year before that “finality is not negatived because the
agency's determination concerning the application of its
statute [is] lacking in ‘independent coercive effect.” /d.
(quoting Port of Boston Marine Terminal Ass'n v. Rederiak-
tiebolaget Transatlantic, 400 U.S. 62, 71 (1970).
22
the same result did not produce an unending flood of
litigation or otherwise prove disruptive to agency use
of interpretative rules. Rather, judicial review of
interpretative rules has proved to be a workable
method of resolving important legal questions. See,
e.g., Independent Bankers Ass’n v. Smith, 534 F.2d
921 (D.C. Cir. 1976) (affirming successful challenge
to interpretative rule regarding whether ATMs
established by national banks are “branches” under
Section 36(f) of the National Bank Act); General Motors
Corp. v. Ruckelshaus, 742 F.2d 1561, 1564-66 (D.C.
Cir. 1984) (en banc) (reviewing interpretative rule).
At a minimum, the government has not identified
any “special justification” sufficient to surmount the
considerable stare decisis barrier to the position that
the government now advances. The government’s brief
neither discusses nor even cites PPG Industries.”
While the government today asserts that a regulated
entity’s disagreement with an agency is insufficient
to “justify judicial review,” the government argued to
the contrary in PPG Industries and the Court agreed.
Pet. Br at 24. The Court should adhere to its prior
decision and decline the unsupported invitation to
depart in this case from the result in PPG Industries.
12.The government does cite Judge Leventhal’s 1971 decision
for the propositions that issuance of interpretative rules is a
“salutary administrative practice” and that the availability
of judicial review “might well discourage the practice,” but
the government does not address the court’s holding that
judicial review of interpretative rules is expressly authorized
and cannot be denied even though an agency’s interpretation
of its law lacks independent coercive effect. Pet. Br. at 23~—24
(quoting Nat'l Automatic Laundry, 443 F.2d at 699).
23
III. The Bennett decision did not overrule the
Court’s decision in PPG Industries and did
not render interpretative rules immune
from judicial review.
Given the text of the Act and the Court’s decision
in PPG Industries, the government’s case turns on
whether the Court in Bennett v. Spear reversed
its prior decision in PPG Industries and erected a
nontextual exemption of interpretative rules from
judicial review in the Administrative Procedure Act.
Pet. Br. at 25 (quoting Bennett v. Spear, 520 U.S. 154,
177 (1997)). The government’s argument misreads the
Bennett decision and ignores the Court’s subsequent
rebuke of the very argument advanced here in the
American Trucking decision and clarification in the
Sackett decision that the “prongs” outlined in Bennett
are merely “hallmarks of finality,” not requirements
that limit the availability of judicial review.
A. The Bennett decision merely distinguished
Franklin and Dalton without imposing a
universal test for final actions.
In the portion of the Bennett decision that the
government relies on to gut the Act’s judicial review
provision, the Court merely dispensed with the
government's “theory” in that case relying on Franklin
and Dalton that a biological opinion issued by the
Fish and Wildlife Service to another agency is not
“reviewable ‘final agency action” because it is “an
agencys recommendation to another governmental
decisionmaker.” Brief for Respondents at 25, Bennett
v. Spear, 520 U.S. 154 (1997) (No. 95-813) (citing
Franklin v. Massachusetts, 505 U.S. 788 (1992);
Dalton v. Specter, 511 U.S. 462 (1994)). The Court
24
distinguished these two cases because they involved
reports to the President “which were purely advisory
and in no way affected the legal rights of the
relevant actors,” as compared to the eventual action
taken by the President that would affect legal rights.
Bennett, 520 U.S. at 178. In other words, the reports
were “preliminary” and “intermediate” rather than
“final.” 5 U.S.C. § 704.
In the course of rejecting the government’s claim
that Franklin and Dalton foreclosed judicial review,
the Court observed: “[aJs a general matter, two
conditions must be satisfied for agency action to be
‘final.” Bennett, 520 U.S. at 177. In describing the
latter of the two “general” conditions, the Court
stated that an “action must be one by which ‘rights
or obligations have been determined,’ or from which
‘legal consequences will flow.” Jd. at 178 (quoting
Marine Terminal, 400 U.S. at 71).
The government argues that this small portion of
the Court’s Bennett decision established (or recited) an
absolute and universal requirement for judicial review
that would preclude review of all interpretative rules.
This mischaracterizes the Court’s discussion in Bennett.
The Bennett discussion merely notes that in many
contexts, agency actions are generally “preliminary”
and “intermediate” until the point at which “rights or
obligations have been determined” or the point at
which “legal consequences will flow.” 5 U.S.C. § 704;
Bennett, 520 U.S. at 178 (quotation omitted). This
general guidepost was helpful to resolve the issue in
Bennett, but its application in one relevant context did
not silently overturn PPG Industries and foreclose
direct judicial review of agency interpretative rules,
as the government suggests.
25
The assertion that Bennett imposed (or recited) a
sweeping limit on the scope of “final agency action”
that forecloses review of interpretative rules is belied
by the Court’s unequivocal recognition in Bennett
that the Act “by its terms provides a right to
judicial review of all ‘final agency action for which
there is no other adequate remedy in a court,’ and
applies universally ‘except to the extent that
statutes preclude judicial review or agency
action is committed to agency discretion by law.”
Bennett, 520 U.S. at 175 (citing 5 U.S.C. § 704;
5 U.S.C. § 701(a)) (emphasis added). It would be
surprising indeed if a few pages later the Court
announced in dicta that the Court would depart
from PPG Industries and deny judicial review of
interpretative rules without even discussing it first.
The Court’s decision included no such announce-
ment, and even if it had that would not be a reason
now to take the dramatic step the government claims
the Court said it would.
B. The American Trucking decision already rejected
the government’s attempt to rely on Bennett to
foreclose judicial review of interpretative rules.
The government’s expansive view of Bennett has
already been rejected by this Court.
In American Trucking, the government argued
an interpretative rule announced in the explanatory
preamble to a final rule “d[id] not satisfy the second
Bennett requirement that ‘the action must be one by
which ‘rights or obligations have been determined,’
or from which ‘legal consequences will flow.” Brief
for Petititioners at 40-41, Whitman v. Am. Trucking
Ass’ns, Inc., 531 U.S. 457 (2001) (No. 99-1257)
(quoting Bennett, 520 U.S. at 178). In an opinion for
26
the Court by the author of Bennett, the Court refused
to apply Bennett to foreclose judicial review of classes
of agency action that by definition do not determine
rights or obligations or have direct legal consequences.
At issue was EPA’s statement interpreting the
provisions of Part D of Title I of the Clean Air Act
regarding whether a set of specific restrictions in
Subpart 2 would govern the implementation of a new
ozone standard. The statement was unquestionably
an interpretative rule “issued by [EPA] to advise the
public of [EPA’s] construction of the [Clean Air Act]
which it administers.” Mortgage Bankers, 135 S. Ct.
at 1204.
The Court had “little trouble concluding” that this
interpretative rule “constitute[d] final agency action.”
Am. Trucking, 531 U.S. at 478. The Court explained
the word “action” in Administrative Procedure Act
“is meant to cover comprehensively every manner in
which an agency may exercise its power” and so the
limit on judicial review is contained “in the word
‘final,’ which requires that the action under review
‘mark the consummation of the agency’s decision-
making process” and “folnly if the ‘[agency] has
rendered its last word on the matter’ in question
is its action ‘final’ and thus reviewable.” Jd. (quoting
Bennett, 520 U.S. at 177-78; PPG Industries, 446
U.S. at 586). The Court found “[t]hat standard” for
final agency action was “satisified” by the agency’s
“adoptlion] of [an] interpretation” of a statute. Jd. at
478-79. Thus, the Court held the interpretative rule
issued by EPA was final agency action even though
the government had shown that “[alny obligations
ar[o]se regardless of what EPA said, or did
not say,” “[nJo legal consequences flow[ed] from the
statements themselves,” and “EPA’s views
27
wlould] produce tangible legal consequences only
when EPA t[ook] actual steps” consistent with EPA’s
interpretation of the statutue. Brief for Petititioners
at 41, Whitman v. Am. Trucking Ass’ns, Inc., 531
U.S. 457 (2001) (No. 99-1257).
And so, the Court in American Trucking rebuffed
the government’s first attempt to argue that the
Bennett decision imposed a “requirement that ‘the
action must be one by which “rights or obligations
have been determined,” or from which “legal
consequences will flow.”” Jd. at 40-41 (quoting
Bennett, 520 U.S. at 178). The government notably
does not discuss or cite American Trucking in its
brief raising the same argument.
C. The Sackett decision clarified that the Bennett
decision outlines “hallmarks” of finality, not
requirements for final actions.
While the decision in American Trucking shows
that the government’s argument based on Bennett is
erroneous, the Court’s opinion by the same author in
Sackett v. EPA, 132 S. Ct. 1367 (2012), helpfully
clarifies that the “prong” on which the government
relies is not a universal requirement.
In Sackett, the government argued that an EPA
compliance order was not a “final agency action” in
part because it did not have a sufficient legal effect.
In rejecting that claim, the Court disagreed but first
clarified that independent legal effects are merely
“hallmarks of APA finality.” Sackett, 132 S. Ct. at
1371. Thus, the decision in Sackett explained that
the discussion in Bennett was merely a recitation of
helpful benchmarks, nothing more.
* * &
28
In this case, the government’s third attempt to
use Bennett to severely restrict the role of courts in
reviewing agency actions, a final and definitive rebuke
is warranted.
29
IV. A decision immunizing interpretative rules
from judicial review would permit
regulation by administrative fiat.
Judicial review of interpretative rules serves a
vital role in administrative law by discouraging
agencies “whose zeal might otherwise have carried
them to excesses” from leveraging the costs, length,
and uncertainty of enforcement actions and the
deference that they are afforded py the judiciary to
coerce regulated entities inio compliance with
burdensome agency demands “not contemplated in
legislation creating their offices.” United States v.
Morton Salt Co., 338 U.S. 632, 644 (1950). The check
of direct judicial review is especially necessary for
interpretative rules that are exempt from the Act’s
procedural protections requiring notice and comment
rule making.
Accepting the government’s position here would
fly in the face of the Court’s assurance last term in
Mortgage Bankers that “regulated entities are not
without recourse” from uniawful, arbitrary, and
capricious interpretative rules. Mortgage Bankers,
135 S. Ct. at 1209. Judicial review is the sole recourse
available for interpretative rules. Congress could not
have intended to leave those aggrieved by agency
interpretative rules without any recourse when these
final agency actions have significant coercive effects.
The public would often have no real choice but to
comply with an agency’s publicly expressed view of
the law no matter how erroneous or unreasonable if
interpretative rules are immune from judicial review
because the alternative course of acting contrary to
the announced agency view risks the considerable
weight of agency enforcement.
30
The government claims that interpretative rules
“are not easily used to ‘strong-arm|[]’ regulated parties”
because they “do not direct the recipient to take or
refrain from taking any action.” Pet. Br. at 44
(quoting Sackett, 132 S. Ct. at 1374). But as the
Court has recognized, “[t]he absence of a notice-and-
comment obligation makes the process of issuing
interpretive rules comparatively easier for agencies
than issuing legislative rules,” Mortgage Bankers,
135 S. Ct. at 1204, and there is little if any difference
in the coerciveness of an agency statement that
certain conduct is unlawful and an agency statement
demanding that the same conduct must stop because
it is unlawful.
The government also claims interpretative rules
“are not easily used to ‘strong-arm|[]’ regulated parties”
because they “they are typically provided only to
persons who request them.” Pet. Br. at 44 (quoting
Sackett, 132 S. Ct. at 1374). But agencies can and do
issue interpretative rules sua sponte, and they
should be expected to do so far more often if the
Court in this case reverses PPG Industries and
immunizes interpretative rules from judicial review.
As the PPG Industries decision illustrates, there
are already circumstances in which agencies issue
interpretative rules on their own accord addressing
capital projects that are already underway. Without
the ability to obtain judicial review, agencies will be
empowered to coerce investments in compliance with
aggressive and potentially unfounded interpretations
of statutes and regulations. For large capital projects
the in terrorum effect of an interpretative ruling can
kill off a project entirely by imposing unacceptable
costs or risks, or discouraging key financial backers.
31
And in other cases, an agency interpretative rule can
force acceptance of large changes in overall costs and
design to meet the demands of an agency’s interpre-
tation that would not survive judicial review.
There is every reason to believe that immunizing
interpretative rules from judicial review would lead
to “strong-arming of regulated parties.” Sackett, 132
S. Ct. at 1374. While agencies might voluntarily
restrain themselves from using such a power to
achieve regulatory ends not intended by Congress
without meaningful judicial review, the Act entrusts
the judiciary with the role of tempering those who in
their zeal would disregard such voluntary restraints.
Congress could not have intended to eliminate this
vital protection by merely requiring that an agency
action must be “final” for judicial review rather than
“preliminary, procedural, or intermediate.”™
13.S. REP. NO. 79-752, at 26 (1945) (“Very rarely do statutes
withhold judicial review. It has never been the policy of
Congress to prevent the administration of its own statutes
from being judicially confined to the scope of authority
granted or to the objectives specified. Its policy could not be
otherwise, for in such a case statutes would in effect be
blank checks drawn to the credit of some administrative
officer or board.”).
32
V. The government’s brief wrongly suggests
the Corps will stop providing jurisdictional
determinations as if the agency can ignore
petitions requesting interpretative rules,
contrary to the requirements of the
Administrative Procedure Act.
The Corps intimates that “because nothing in the
(Clean Water] Act or the Corps’ regulations requires
the Corps to issue jurisdictional determinations, the
Corps might reconsider the practice” if the Court
were to affirm the right to judicial review. This is an
empty threat. The Corps cannot decide to categor-
ically ignore petitions from landowners requesting
jurisdictional determinations to avoid the burden of
judicial review. Pet. Br. at 24. To the contrary,
the consideration and disposition of petitions from
landowners requesting jurisdictional determinations
are both required and governed by the provisions of
the Administrative Procedure Act.
The Clean Water Act does not have to “establish” a
“mechanism whereby a property owner, without first
seeking a permit or discharging without a permit,
may obtain the government’s view as to whether the
Act applies to particular sites,” Pet Br. at 3, because
that mechanism is generally provided by Congress in
the Administrative Procedure Act. The Act dictates
that “[e]lach agency shall give an interested person
the right to petition for the issuance, amendment, or
repeal of a rule” and that this extends to a rule that
is a “statement of particular applicability and
future effect designed to interpret law.”
5 U.S.C. § 553(e); 5 U.S.C. § 551(4). Thus, the Corps
“shall give” a landowner “the right to petition for the
33
issuance of” a “statement” determining “whether the
Act applies to particular sites.”
The Corps cannot categorically ignore petitions
requesting interpretative rules, for denial of such a
petition requires “[p]rompt notice of the denial”
and must be “accompanied by a brief statement of
the grounds for denial.” § 555(e). A blanket prospective
denial of petitions would contravene this provision.
The consideration and disposition of a landowner
petition requesting a jurisdictional determination is
not “committed to agency discretion by law,” § 701(aX2),
and so it may not be “unreasonably delayed,” § 706(1),
and a decision to deny a petition must be vacated by
a reviewing court if it is “arbitrary, capricious, [or]
an abuse of discretion.” § 706(2)(A).
Announcing to the public that all future petitions
for jurisdictional determinations will be ignored or
denied without reasonable consideration would
violate the Administrative Procedure Act. Accordingly,
there is no real danger that the Court’s decision in
this case would cause the Corps to “reconsider the
practice” of reasonably considering and disposing of
petitions requesting jurisdictional determinations.
Agencies have been making interpretative rules
under threat of judicial review for many decades.
Undoubtedly agencies prefer to operate without the
oversight of the courts and, therefore, it is not
surprising that the government is making a third
attempt to avoid judicial review. Nor should it be
surprising, however, for the Court to reaffirm the
essential role of judicial review for final agency
actions interpreting how the law applies to those
affected.
34
CONCLUSION
The judgment of the court of appeals should be
affirmed.
March 2016
Respectfully submitted,
J. VAN CARSON
Counsel of Record
KAREN A. WINTERS
DOUGLAS A. MCWILLIAMS
ROBERT D. CHEREN
DANELLE M. GAGLIARDI
SQUIRE PATTON Boacs (US) LLP
4900 Key Tower
127 Public Square
Cleveland, Ohio 44114
(216) 479-8559
van.carson@squirepb.com
This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.