''Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. Natural Resources Defense Council'', 435 U.S. 519 (1978), is a case in which the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

held that a court cannot impose

rulemaking In administrative law, rulemaking is the process that executive and independent agencies use to create, or ''promulgate'', regulations. In general, legislatures first set broad policy mandates by passing statutes, then agencies create more deta ...

procedures on a federal

government agency A government or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an administrati ...

. The federal Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 and an agency's statutory mandate from

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

establish the maximum requirements for an agency's rulemaking (and

adjudicative Adjudication is the legal process by which an arbiter or judge reviews evidence and argumentation, including legal reasoning set forth by opposing parties or litigants, to come to a decision which determines rights and obligations between the pa ...

) process. An agency may grant additional procedural rights in the

regulatory Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. For ...

process (within constitutional and statutory limits). However, a reviewing court cannot "impose upon the agency its own notion of which procedures are 'best' or most likely to further some vague, undefined public good"; to do so would exceed the limits of

judicial review Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompat ...

of agency action.

Background

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit became the preeminent administrative law court in the United States. This was in large part due to the creation of new federal statutes such as the Clean Air Act that designated the D.C. Circuit as the center for challenges of regulations issued under said statutes. The D.C. Circuit subsequently expanded administrative law jurisprudence significantly, particularly jurisprudence on informal rulemaking that enhanced judicial review of agency procedures. Underlying most of this jurisprudence was a distrust of federal agencies that came to fruition during this time due to concerns about agency capture.

Aftermath

In its decision, the Supreme Court "could not have made plainer its view that the D.C. Circuit had overstepped its proper role and illegitimately used its judicial review function to advance its judges' own policy preferences." While the holding in ''Vermont Yankee'' was "certainly broad enough to suggest that courts should stick to the original understanding of the APA with respect to he APA's requirements that agencies issue a notice of proposed rulemaking and a statement of basis and purpose" courts have not applied it in that way. The case was remanded for the circuit court to determine whether the Table S-3 rule was adequately supported by the administrative record. After the

Nuclear Regulatory Commission The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with protecting public health and safety related to nuclear energy. Established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, the NRC began operat ...

revised the rule, the Natural Resources Defense Council filed for judicial review of the new regulation. That led to a second Supreme Court case, '' Baltimore Gas & Elec. Co. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.''.. ''Vermont Yankee'' signaled a change in administrative law jurisprudence towards legal formalism and textualism.

References

External links

* United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Burger Court United States administrative case law United States energy case law United States environmental case law 1978 in the environment 1978 in United States case law Nuclear power in the United States Natural Resources Defense Council {{SCOTUS-stub

Background

Aftermath

See also

References

Further reading

External links