12 U.S.C. § 4623(d) limits court review of "director" actions. this was taken up at judge Ginsburg's insistence in the perry appeal.
Thanks, I didn't know about that.
The text reads:
(d) Limitation on jurisdiction
Except as provided in this section, no court shall have jurisdiction to affect, by injunction or otherwise, the issuance or effectiveness of any classification or action of the Director under this subchapter (other than appointment of a conservator under section 4616 or 4617 of this title or action under section 4619 of this title) or to review, modify, suspend, terminate, or set aside such classification or action.
Technically, Watt not issuing the capital standards that he is by statute required to do is neither a "classification" nor an "action", is it? Or does an inaction legally count as an action? Would a court order forcing Watt to come up with enforceable capital standards, and following the statute when they are not met, be considered as the court "affect[ing], review[ing], modify[ing], suspend[ing], terminat[ing], or set[ting] aside" some classification or action?
I know it sounds like I'm being pedantic. I'm just trying to understand the laws better and how violations and challenges tend to work in practice.
It kind of rankles that one section of a law could be used to prevent review of a violation of another part of the law. While claims against the NWS haven't had any clear statute of HERA that is violated, Watt's refusal to do what he is obligated to does directly violate 1361(a)(1). I'm not sure how much that matters.
Edit: Earlier in section 4623 is this:
(b) Scope of review
The Court may modify, terminate, or set aside an action taken by the Director and reviewed by the Court pursuant to this section only if the court finds, on the record on which the Director acted, that the action of the Director was arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with applicable laws.
4623(d) only applies to things not covered in (b). Refusing to fulfill a statuory obligation - in this case setting capital requirements in 1361(a)(1) - seems like it is "not in accordance with applicable laws."