Administrative Law
Professor Oren
Fall 2010
The Constitutional Right to a Hearing
· Due process clause of Constitution both to the federal government through the 5th amendments and the actions of the state through the 14th amendments
· Extent to which it is a check on administrative procedures that help to limit agency action
· State legislative can provide more than the Constitution but Constitutional rights are the minimum
§ 2.1 Hearings and Welfare Termination: Due Process and Mass Justice
Goldberg v. Kelly: welfare recipients had claim of entitlement to payments
· Lack of hearing before termination process is a violation of the Due Process Clause of the 14th amendment. Procedure necessitated is a pre-termination hearing (notion of dignity, accuracy) but it doesn’t have to be very formal
o It’d be impossible to give everybody a hearing so they engage in balancing test to figure out whether process is needed (recipients interest in continued payment v. government’s interest in postponing hearing)
· For it to be a property interest, it has to be established by statute, and only then is Due Process Clause applicable
· Privileges, on the other hand, can be taken away without process before termination. Government is under no obligation to create welfare entitlement but once it does, due process governs how it can be taken away
§ 2.2 Interests Protected by Due Process: Liberty and Property
§2.2.1 “Liberty” and “Property” as Defined in Roth
Board of Regents v. Roth: professor is seeking continuance of employment which was a benefit, not a right (entitlement)
· To have property interest in a benefit, there must be a legitimate claim of entitlement (reliance is key); theyre defined by existing rules or understandings from things like statutes
· Function of property is to protect interests that people rely on everyday (interests entitled to them). Not created by Constitution but other sources like state/federal law that secures benefits and supports claims of entitlements
Perry v. Sindermann: professor was fired after implied contract that stated that all teachers have tenure so long as they do good job (by custom, there was something like tenure)
· Property denotes a broad range of interests that are secured by existing rules or understandings and not limited by few rigid, technical forms
· A persons interest in a benefit is a property interest for due process purposes if there are such rules or mutually explicit understandings that support his claim of entitlement to the benefit
· The more discretion the decisionmaker has, the less there is a due process right (less of a property interest to which due process clause applies)
o Either provide no discretion (up to state to ensure no property right is created) or give them incentive to create very precise rules
o Up to government to create a property right (state can choose not to create property right through laws, they can prevent due process from applying just be not creating entitlements). If you don’t provide any concrete standards for whether or not to create a right, no entitlement is created
§ Could undercut Due Process Clause simply by not drafting its statutes in ways that will let you have a statutory entitlement
§ No natural right to property, the only right you have is the property the state chooses to create in you
§2.2.2 Refining the Roth Approach to Property and Liberty
Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill: Ohio city workers were discharged but could only be fired for good cause
· State can condition the property right substantively and in that way deny a property right.
· State can’t condition property right procedurally and procedure should be taken into account in determining whether we have property interest – otherwise states would be able to define process without any kind of review by federal courts
§ 2.3 Timing of Trial-Type Hearings
Mathews v. Eldridge: welfare recipient denied benefits but not on verge of subsistence
· Once an entitlement has been established, and theyre being deprived a property interest, due process applies, we have to determine what process constitutes “due” process
o Look at private interests being affected (like interest in receiving benefits)
o Fairness and reliability of existing procedures and probable value of additional procedural safeguards (issues of veracity and credibility, objectivity)
o Risk of erroneous decision
o Government interests
o Public interest (administrative burdens, cost of hearing weighed against other factors)
§ 2.4 Elements of a Hearing
Ingraham v. Wright: whether paddling of students as a means of maintaining school discipline
· It was OK because there was a tort remedy, risk of error in paddling is law and we don’t need administrative process.
· Invasion of liberty but its sufficient to have after the fact remedy
· Due Process Clause applies when government is depriving individual from liberty, property
§ 2.5 The Rulemaking-Adjudication Distinction
· In deciding when Due Process Clause applies, you need to apply distinction between rulemaking and adjudication
o Adjudication: action that affects specific people, applies to many procedural due process cases
o Rulemaking: affects a class of peopl
ll agency has to do is persuade court they’ve been reasonable
§3.1.2 Rights to a Hearing Under State Law
Greenwood Manor v. Iowa Dep’t of Public Health: proposed healthcare facility that needs to get certification
· Matters of fact can be determined through informal processes as opposed to having a formal hearing
· No Constitutional right to a hearing, but even if due process applies, public hearing can be enough
Metsch v. University of Florida: turned down at law school, wants formal adjudication hearing to ask whether he should’ve been admitted
· Nothing is being taken away, he didn’t have some sort of entitlement to be accepted, it wasn’t a substantial interest
· Even if he had substantial interest though, FL law provided for informal proceeding where a cases doesn’t present a disputed issue of material fact
§ 3.2 Limiting the Issues to Which Hearing Rights Apply
· Are there issues that agency can determine by rulemaking rather than having case by case on those issues
Heckler v. Campbell: whether secretary of health may rely on published medical guidelines to determine claimants rights to disability benefits
· Court has recognized that even where an agency’s enabling statute expressly requires it to hold a hearing, the agency may rely on its rulemaking authority to determine issues that do not require case by case consideration
§ 3.3 The Conflict Between Institutional and Judicialized Decision-Making
· 2 conflicting models of adjudicative decisionmaking
o Judicial model suggests that an agency’s adjudicative decision resembles a judge’s decision; fairness and acceptability to private litigants should be the primary goals of the agency adjudication process
§ Judge looks at evidence, hears testimony, and makes decision himself
o Institutional model views an agency as if it were a single unit with the mission of implementing a regulatory scheme; they stress accuracy and efficiency as the dominant values
§3.3.1 Personal Responsibility of Decisionmakers
o In judicial model, the judge hears all the evidence and argument and makes a decision based on that
