Department of Commerce v. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
Case remanded on June 28, 2019, with instructions to vacate the lower court's orders dated September 25, 2018 and October 9, 2018.
Issue
Whether, in an action seeking to set aside agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 701 et seq., a district court may order discovery outside the administrative record to probe the mental processes of the agency decisionmaker, including by compelling the testimony of high-ranking Executive Branch officials, when there is no evidence that the decisionmaker disbelieved the objective reasons in the administrative record, irreversibly prejudged the issue, or acted on a legally forbidden basis.
Recommended Citation: Department of Commerce v. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, SCOTUSblog, https://www.scotusblog.com/cases/in-re-department-of-commerce/