A United States Court of Appeals for Administration

• Date: 01 May 1942
• DOI: 10.1177/000271624222100123
• Published date: 01 May 1942
• Subject Matter: Articles

170

A

United

States

Court

of

Appeals

for

Administration

By

FREDERICK

F.

BLACHLY

and

MIRIAM

E.

OATMAN

A MONG

the

most

important

prob-

lems

in

public

administration

to-

day

are

those

concerned

with

the

control

and

enforcement

of

actions

taken

by

ad-

ministrative

authorities.

These

prob-

lems

resolve

themselves

into

a

number

of

subsidiary

problems,

of

which

the

following

will

be

considered

briefly

in

this

study,

from

the

standpoint

of

pres-

ent

practice

and

that

of

recommenda-

tions

for

the

future:

(1)

the

number

and

the

nature

of

authorities

carrying

out

the

functions

of

control

and

en-

forcement ;

(2)

the

relation

of

admin-

istrative

actions

to

rights;

(3)

present

complexity

of

jurisdiction

in this

field;

(4)

procedure

to

review

administrative

action;

and

(5)

procedure

to

enforce

administrative

action.

NUMBER

AND

NATURE

OF

CONTROLLING

AUTHORITIES

Congress

has

authorized

specific

types

of

administrative

action

by

more

than

three

thousand

statutory

provisions.

In

connection

with

about

four

hundred

of

these

authorizations

to

act,

Congress

has

provided

for

some

sort

of

review.

Such

review

is

performed

by

a

wide

variety

of

authorities,

including

consti-

tutional

courts,

legislative

courts,

and

administrative

tribunals.

In

respect

to

the

other

authorizations

to

act,

Congress

has

made

no

express

provision

for

con-

trol.

This

is

due

partly

to

the

fact

that

the

actions

authorized

did

not

appear

to

affect

the

rights

of

individuals,

but

also

to

the

fact

that

until

a

few

decades

ago,

when

Federal

regulation

began

to

take

on

considerable

importance,

court

decisions,

rather

than

express

statutory

provisions,

largely

determined

whether

the

courts

would

take

jurisdiction,

and

if

so,

how

far

they

would

exercise

con-

trol.

In

many

cases

where

.the

courts

do

not

control

administrative

action,

the

executive

or

the

administrative

authori-

ties

themselves

have

established

ad-

ministrative

appellate

bodies

of

various

sorts.’

The

net

result

of

this

Congressional,

executive,

and

administrative

action

is

that

at

present

there

are

about

a

hun-

dred

and

fifty

authorities

which

in

one

way

or

another

control

administrative

determinations.

The

controlling

authorities

which

have

been

established

by

statute

(not

including

certain

appeals

to

heads

of

departments

and

the

like)

are:

(1)

the

eighty-eight

district

courts;

(2)

the

Dis-

trict

Court

of

the

United

States

for

the

District

of

Columbia;

(3)

the

ad

hoc

three-judge

district

courts;

(4)

the

eleven

circuit

courts

of

appeals;

(5)

the

Court

of

Appeals

for

the

District

of

Columbia;

(6)

the

Court

of

Claims;

(7)

the

Customs

Court;

(8)

the

Court

of

Customs

and

Patent

Appeals;

(9)

the

Board

of

Tax

Appeals;

(10)

the

Processing

Tax

Board

of

Review;

(11)

the

Board

of

Appeals

in

the

Patent

Of-

fice ;

(12)

Review

Committees

under

the

Soil

Conservation

and

Domestic

Al-

lotment

Act;

(13)

the

Bituminous

Coal

Division

in

the

Department

of

the

In-

terior,

which

reviews

the

rules

and

regu-

lations

of

district

boards;

(14)

the

Board

of

Tea

Appeals;

and

(15)

the

Commodity

Exchange

Commission.

1

See

for

numerous

examples,

F. F.

Blachly,

Working

Papers

on

Administrative

Adjudica-

tion,

75th

Cong.,

3d

sess.,

Committee

Print

(1938).

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